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BL Premium reports that after parties failed to hammer out a new wage hike deal for local government employees, an independent facilitator has proposed below-inflation wage increases.
This year, parties in the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (Salgbc) had unanimously agreed, for the first time, to embark on facilitated negotiations to promote harmonious labour relations. Advocate Naledi Burwana-Bisiwe was appointed to facilitate the wage talks, with the aim of stepping should the country’s 257 municipality, represented by the SA Local Government Association (Salga), and unions fail to find each during negotiations. After the parties couldn’t agree on a wage deal following the fourth round of wage talks last week, Burwana-Bisiwe was asked to broker a deal acceptable to all parties. In her draft “Facilitator’s Proposal” report, Burwana-Bisiwe has proposed a three-year wage deal, with employees getting a 4% wage increase in the first year, followed by projected consumer price index (CPI) minus 1% for the second and third years of the agreement, respectively. She has also proposed a freeze on all benefits linked to salary increases, as well as a provision that in the event of unforeseen supervening circumstances, a party may tender to “withdraw from the agreement”. But, Dumisane Magagula of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) said Burwana-Bisiwe’s proposal was “biased towards the employer, while labour’s demands have not been taken into consideration”. He indicated|: “We will, therefore, be taking the proposal to our members while in the same process balloting for a potential strike as required by the law.” Johan Koen of the Independent Municipal and Allied Workers Union (Imatu) said he would be in a position to provide a detailed response on Thursday. A Salga spokesperson said while the association had received the facilitator’s report, it was too early to give a detailed response.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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