This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Fin24 reports that unions representing police officers could consider strike action in protest against government's public service wage offer. The Cosatu-affiliated Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) and the SA Policing Union (SAPU) have both rejected government's 3% wage offer, along with the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw).
SAPU is affiliated with the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu). Popcru plans to stage a march to the Union Buildings later this month, along with lunch-hour pickets in protest against government's wage offer. The march is also likely to gauge the appetite of ordinary members to strike, which could include 182,126 police officers, over 38,000 correctional centre guards, and tens of thousands of traffic officers. The police unions are chiefly motivated by the rising cost of living and government's decision to renege on the last leg of the 2018 public service wage agreement, which was upheld by the Constitutional Court. In late August, the government raised its wage offer from 2% to 3% during a mediation process aimed at breaking a deadlock in the discussions. But while other unions have taken this offer to their membership for a mandate, Popcru is still demanding a 10% wage increase, while SAPU has revised its offer downwards from 10% to 8%. SAPU's spokesperson, Lesiba Thabokgale, called on all public sector unions to unite and reject the offer. He said SAPU had already lodged a dispute in the public service wage talks and was set to hold a strike ballot with membership soon. Popcru, in a statement, said that it fervently rejected the current wage offer tabled by the government. The unions contend that, if a 3% increase and a non-pensionable cash gratuity were to be implemented, they would have lost out on real increases to their wages and pensions for three years since 2020.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page