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BL Premium reports that the cash-strapped government, which is trying to rein in public spending, has until Friday to table a revised wage offer to its 1.3-million public servants, failing which the unions have threatened to declare a dispute that could lead to a debilitating national strike if unresolved.
The parties are set to meet on Friday at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), where the government previously argued that its offer of a 2% cost of living adjustment and a R1,000 after-tax cash gratuity equated when combined to 6.5%. But the unions were not sold on that. Friday’s PSCBC meeting comes after Cosatu and the Public Servants Association (PSA) trimmed their demand to 6.5% (excluding the cash gratuity) in July from an opening level of 10% in May. The decision to move to 6.5% was billed as labour’s willingness to reach a pay hike deal and avoid a repeat of 2020’s protracted legal dispute with the state over the payment terms of a multiyear wage agreement negotiated in 2018. Simon Hlungwani, convener of Cosatu’s joint mandating committee, said on Thursday that the government needed to table a revised offer on Friday as the 2% offer had been rejected by workers. Hlungwani said parties would head for a dispute if there was no revised offer from the government. He emphasised that if parties failed to find each other, “then a dispute process would unfold. The PSA’s Reuben Maleka said on Thursday it was “encouraging” that other unions realised “2% was not adequate”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page