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The Citizen reports that the Cederberg Municipality in the Western Cape has been ordered by the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) to pay this year’s salary increments after its application to be exempted from a wage deal on the basis of financial distress was dismissed.
The municipality was party to a three-year wage agreement signed at the bargaining council and paid the first leg of the increment last year. A month before this year’s increase was due to be paid, Cederberg lodged an application at the SALGBC to be exempted from paying wage increments to its 345 workers. The SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) opposed the application. In her ruling on Monday, arbitrator Arthi Singh-Bhoopchand said the municipality’s financial problems did not happen overnight and that it ought to have budgeted for the wage increments. “The municipality was aware or had to have been aware for some time of the financial challenges. Yet it resolved only as late as May 2022 to apply for an exemption, and that too after choosing not to budget for the increase,” the arbitrator found. Despite its financial problems, the municipality paid consultants and agreed to repay its Eskom debt at an additional interest rate of 2.5% above prime. Such decisions, said Singh-Bhoopchand, showed that officials never prioritised worker’s salaries. According to Samwu’s Dumisane Magagula, at least 13 municipalities have so far tried to renege on the wage agreement. The Newcastle Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has also not paid this year’s wage increment, and has not lodged an application for exemption, Imatu said in a statement on Wednesday.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Getrude Makhafola at The Citizen (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page