Fin24 reports that according to the Public Servants Association (PSA), which represents 235,000 workers, government is undermining the wage negotiation process with unions by negotiating through the media.

On Monday, Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu put out a call to the public to provide proposals on how to resolve the deadlock in public sector wage negotiations.  Parties on the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) met on Friday to discuss wage increases for 2021/2022, but no agreement could be reached over the government’s offer of a zero percent increase. The PSA said it intended to lodge a dispute and has told its members to prepare for industrial action. Prior to the negotiations, Mchunu said at a press briefing that the government was not out to "win" in the process. He said the country should win and added that a balanced outcome should be reached. But the PSA has criticised the minister for negotiating through the media, which it said was "disrespectful and undermining" labour and the negotiation process. "The Public Servants Association is appalled by tactics deployed by the minister of public service and administration to gain public sympathy for government's quandary related to public servants' overdue salary increases. Government is the author of its own demise in this matter and is now requesting the public to get involved and resolve its self-created problem. This is disingenuous and malicious," the PSA indicated in a statement on Monday. The union said solutions to the deadlock could only be found jointly with labour in the PSCBC forum. I

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lameez Omarjee at Fin24
• Read too, Wage deadlock: public proposals welcome to assist with negotiations, at Independent Media

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