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In an interview with The Money Show’s Bruce Whitfield, SA Revenue Service (SARS) Commissioner Edward Kieswetter discussed the renewed wage strike at the agency by members of the Public Servants Association (PSA) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).
In a nutshell, the unions want a salary increase of CPI (5%) + 7%, across the board. SARS responded with a counter-offer of 1.3% after the first bout of strike action in May. Kieswetter said it must be remembered that it was not the revenue service that allocated its own budget. He explained: “The central point that I have to register (because there's miscommunication about it) is that SARS does not decide its budget! SARS gets allocated funding from National Treasury and therefore, quite frankly, our unions can stay out as long as they want to – SARS is not able to put another offer on the table until and unless we get money from National Treasury.” He went on to say: “It's on public record - in my last Parliamentary appearance - that SARS is significantly underfunded. Whether we need the extra money for salary increases is another matter.” Kieswetter emphasised that it would be irresponsible of him to negotiate outside of the bounds of what he had been allocated. Kieswetter emphasized that he had been "more than transparent" with the unions and had shown them the breakdown of the SARS budget allocation. On Wednesday just over 65% of SARS employees were at work out of 12,800 employees, according to Kieswetter.
- Listen to the full interview with the SARS Commissioner on The Money Show at EWN
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page