Fin24 reports that the Public Servants Association (PSA) will officially begin its first public service strike in over a decade with a "stayaway" on Wednesday, to be followed by pickets and mass action around the country from next week Thursday.

Meanwhile, several other public service unions held pickets even as they were in conciliation talks with the government at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). All this comes after acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi invoked Section 5 of the Public Service Act to unilaterally implement a 3% wage increase in the public service. Nxesi's move prompted the Cosatu bloc of unions to revert to their 10% wage increase demand. With the PSA’s estimated 235,000 members set to go on strike, thousands more from other unions could also down tools if conciliation processes fail. The PSCBC confirmed it was in a conciliation process with Nehawu, Popcru, Denosa and Hospersa. The PSA’s Claude Naicker said once it kicked off, the union’s industrial action was expected to affect the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Labour's immigration offices, schools, and the Department of Transport. He said essential service workers would limit their action to lunchtime pickets. PSCBC general secretary Frikkie de Bruin said the state remained locked in a conciliation process with Nehawu, Popcru, Denosa, and Hospersa in a bid to break the impasse.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24
• Read too, PSA to go on strike after wage talks with government collapse, at EWN

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