This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
BL Premium reports that public sector trade unions have taken their fight over wage increases to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) in a last-ditch effort to ensure the state does not get out of a collective agreement.
Last week, eight public sector unions filed two separate applications to the ConCourt to appeal against a December judgment by the Labour Appeal Court (LAC) that the government did not have to implement a wage agreement which it did not have the money to pay for. In April 2020 the state failed to implement the final leg of a three-year wage increase agreement entered into in 2018. The government’s refusal to pay up was because it did not have the money. It also argued that the agreement was unlawful as it did not adhere to the constitution and certain public service regulations. These arguments succeeded in the LAC in December. It is this judgment that trade unions have now taken to the ConCourt. The Public Servants Association (PSA) and four other unions have raised a host of issues which they argue were not dealt with by the LAC. The unions assert that, given the importance of collective agreements, public policy demands that “their integrity must be respected and protected”. In a separate application by the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA, the three unions have asked the ConCourt to declare the 2018 collective agreement lawful and constitutionally valid and to order the government to meet its obligations in a staggered or phased manner. They want the court to order the state and trade unions to head back to the negotiating table to determine a reasonable way in which the government can comply with the agreement. If such negotiations do not work, the three unions then want the court to refer the dispute back to the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council for resolution.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Claudi Mailovich at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page