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BL Premium reports that in a move that takes it a step closer to a strike by more than 200,000 public servants, the Public Servants Association (PSA) has lodged a dispute with the government after wage negotiations stalled.
The declaration of the dispute kicks the talks to the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) for mediation. It came after the PSA rejected the sweetened offer of 2%, which was tabled last week. The union wants an inflation-beating 10% increase across the board. If conciliation and mediation under the PSCBC fail to break the deadlock after 30 days, tens of thousands of PSA members, who include teachers, nurses and police officers, could down tools, said the PSA’s Reuben Maleka. In a statement, Maleka said the employer’s revised 2% offer, which was below the 5.9% headline inflation rate the SA Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022, was “offensive to employees” who have not received increases for the past three years. The offer is also below the 3% pay hike, recently announced and backdated to April 2021, for ministers and their deputies, premiers, MECs, MPs, MPLs, traditional leaders and judges. No date has been set for the conciliation and mediation process, said Oomang Parag, spokesperson for the PSCBC, who added that the parties would meet next week. The PSA’s posture threatens to put to the test the pledge by finance minister Enoch Godongwana to keep government spending under control after growth in public sector remuneration over the past decade far outpaced inflation and GDP growth.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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