BL Premium reports that after five months of waiting, the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) will on Monday deliver its judgment on the government’s controversial decision to renege on aspects of the wage agreement reached with public sector unions in 2018.

In a document to the Public Sector Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), the court's registrar indicated that judgment would be handed down electronically and circulated to the parties’ legal representatives by email. The unions — including the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), and the Public Servants Association (PSA) — approached the top court in August 2021 to challenge a ruling by the Labour Appeal Court in 2020, upholding a Treasury decision not to implement the final leg of a three-year public-sector wage deal due to lack of money. Implementing the final year of the three-year agreement would have cost R38bn while the government is trying to rein in public spending and slash the ballooning wage bill. The unions told the ConCourt that the government could no longer be trusted to fulfil its contractual obligations and that the non-implementation of the agreement jeopardised the bargaining process. Meantime, a public sector labour summit will take place from 28 to 30 March for stakeholders to engage on issues aimed at “building a sustainable public service and remuneration guidelines”.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)

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