Reuters reports that public sector unions want a general salary rise of consumer price inflation plus 4% for all workers, a document they presented to the government showed on Monday.
The list of 16 demands, which includes better housing payments and a Covid-19 risk allowance of 12% of basic salary, comes amid a court fight between the unions representing more than 1 million teachers, nurses and police and the state over salaries. The unions have approached the Constitutional Court to try to force the National Treasury to pay the final tranche – which had been due in April 2020 – of the preceding three-year wage settlement struck in 2018. Meantime, Finance minister Tito Mboweni pledged in October to freeze public sector wages for the next three years to help contain a gaping budget deficit weighing on the economy, with civil servants' salaries making up around a third of consolidated state spending. A spokesperson for the Department of Public Service & Administration refrained from commenting on the latest wage demands, saying that the negotiations had only just begun.
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