Business Maverick writes that public sector trade unions affiliated to labour federation Cosatu and the Public Servants Association (PSA) are still consolidating their wage adjustment demands for 2022.
Apparently, some of the trade unions have proposed a wage increase equivalent to consumer inflation (currently 5.7%) plus two percentage points. Such an increase, which would work out to nearly 8%, would be for a single year (2022) only as a multi-year deal would be unlikely. There are about 10 trade unions which represent public servants and consolidating their demands will ensure that unions show a united front when they officially present them soon to the Department of Public Service and Administration and the Treasury. But it is said that wage adjustment negotiations for 2022 will be tougher than usual for several reasons and trade unions will begin wage talks without a strong bargaining position. The government has the upper hand after recently scoring a victory against trade unions at the Constitutional Court, which will fundamentally impact the collective bargaining process. The apex court’s ruling affirmed the government’s right to renege on a collective agreement on wage increases for public servants if it didn’t have money to comply with the agreement. The government will apparently inform trade unions that their public service members will not be awarded inflation-busting wage increases for the third consecutive year. Trade unions want the government to go back to how wage increases were historically structured. Over the past decade, consumer inflation has always been built into the structure of wage adjustments with up to two percentage points added on top of inflation to reach the final wage adjustment rate. But, going back to the old ways of calculating wage adjustments won’t fly for Treasury, which plans to meet the unions at the end of March to discuss their demands.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Ray Mahlaka at Daily Maverick
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