Fin24 reports that unions representing employees in the public service met with the government on Friday in a bid to strike a wage deal, but unions roundly rejected the government's offer of a 2% wage increase.

The demands of the unions currently range between 4% and 6.5%. Earlier in the week, the Public Servants Association (PSA) said it would pursue a fresh dispute against the state after government said that union demands were unaffordable and it would only be able to pay an increase from the date a deal was signed, not retrospectively from April this year. Government’s final offer currently on the table amounts to 2% – with a sliding scale in terms of which salary levels 1 to 4 would receive 3%, levels 5 to 8 would receive 2.10%, and levels 9 to 12 would receive 1.50%. Negotiations coordinator for the Cosatu bloc of public sector unions, Simon Hlungwani, confirmed that Cosatu affiliates in the talks rejected the government's offer on Friday. Hlungwani said by 12 August the employer was expected to reply to labour's demands, failing which a deadlock would be declared. From there the matter would either be referred to conciliation, followed by arbitration, or a possible strike. Hlungwani could not confirm reports that Cosatu had met with Minister of Employment and Labour Thulas Nxesi in his capacity as acting minister of Public Service and Administration to find a political solution to the public service wage talks. Meantime, the PSA's Reuben Maleka said that as far as the union was concerned, other unions were free to join the PSA in its dispute against the government.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24
• Read too, Numsa threatens national strike if motor sector snubs proposed 12% wage hike, at EWN

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