TimesLIVE reports that with public service wage talks deadlocked for months, Department of Public Service & Administration (DPSA) Minister Senzo Mchunu has pleaded with labour unions to return to the negotiating table.

This after government at the weekend tabled a revised offer, including a 1.5% increase plus a R1,000 cash allowance, resulting in an effective 11.7% increase for the lowest-paid public servants. It had previously offered a R978 cash gratuity for a year. Several unions are said to have walked out of the talks after the government's failure to table an offer they found satisfactory. Some of the unions have threatened to strike. Speaking to journalists during a virtual briefing, Mchunu said though there had been some progress in the talks, other issues had since come up. He went on to indicate: “We want to note and raise concern that at some point, for some reason, there are unions that for their own considered reasons decided to leave the negotiations. We respect each and every labour organisations that is involved in the public service, we respect their decision but we want to take this opportunity to implore them, to make a direct request that they reconsider their position and possibly go back to the chamber together with all of us to try to find one another and correct what is not correct.” The minister said he was not oblivious to the fact that the government’s offer was not satisfactory to the unions, but reiterated the importance of negotiating. The new offer was confirmed on Sunday by the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), which said that unions would be seeking a mandate from their members on the revised offer.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nonkululeko Njilo at TimesLIVE

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