Fin24 reports that the SA Revenue Service (SARS) has put "contingency measures" in place to ensure there is as little disruption as possible at land border posts during its ongoing wage strike.
Strike action by the Public Servants Association (PSA) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) last week forced the tax agency to close 18 branches. Unions are demanding a 7% increase in wages. But while SARS has suggested channelling its savings from 2021 towards wages, the unions have rejected that offer, saying this would only amount to a 1.39% increase. Analysts had predicted that pressure on SA’s already congested border posts – coupled with a precedent set at Eskom, where workers secured a 7% increase after an unprotected strike – would force SARS to capitulate. But Commissioner Edward Kieswetter has repeatedly said that it would not be possible to offer a higher increase without an additional budget provision. On Friday evening, SARS said it "would like to assure traders and travellers that it has put various contingency measures in place at land border posts to ensure minimal disruption during the current industrial action at SARS". It committed to ensuring that throughout the strike, the processing of declarations would continue as normal, as would physical inspections of goods, with inspection finalisation being centralised and managed on a 24-hour cycle.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard compiled by Marelise van der Merwe at Fin24
- Lees ook, Doeane aan grens ‘nie ontwrig deur SAID staking’, by Maroela Media
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