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BL Premium reports that in a hard-hitting unanimous judgment and a big victory for the government, the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) has ruled the state can back out of what an acting judge blasted as an “impugned wage deal” with unions in 2018.
Mjabuliseni Isaac Madondo ruled that the government does not have to implement the last leg of the three-year agreement reached at the public sector bargaining council in 2018 as the unions were “unjustifiably enriched” from the “impugned collective agreement”. A ruling in the unions’ favour would have added R29bn to expenditure and would have tarnished the credibility of last week’s national budget, which named the wage bill — which is set to top R700bn in 2024 — as one of the biggest risks to SA’s finances. The unions — which included Nehawu, Sadtu, Popcru, and the Public Servants Association — approached the top court last August to challenge the ruling by the Labour Appeal Court in 2020, upholding a Treasury decision not to implement the final part of a three-year public sector wage deal due to a lack of money. On Monday, Madondo dismissed the appeal and criticised the “illicit salary increases” the unions enjoyed over two years, saying if the final year of the agreement were implemented, it would “precipitate a fiscal crisis” that would detract from the state’s ability to alleviate the plight of the poorest of the poor. Mugwena Maluleke, convener of the Cosatu public service unions, said: “It’s regrettable that the Constitutional Court dismissed our appeal and that workers have lost their increases, not because of their own fault, but that of the DPSA [Department of Public Service & Administration] for not complying with the regulations.” Popcru’s spokesperson said the judgment was a “sad moment for collective bargaining in our country”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Read too, SA gets top court backing to renege on 2018 public wage deal, at Moneyweb
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page