Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cosatu has returned to demanding a 10% increase in the public service wage talks after acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi said he would invoke section 5 of the Public Service Act to apply a 3% hike unilaterally.
The return to the steep demand also comes after the Public Service Association (PSA) served the government with a seven-day notice of intention to strike after the public service wage talks remained deadlocked at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC).
While the government has offered 3%, most unions’ demands at the negotiations range between 5% and 10%. The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) is, so far, the only union to accept the 3% wage offer. Cosatu will now head to conciliation with the government at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council next week.
Nxesi has pushed to implement a 3% wage hike unilaterally in terms of Section 5 of the Public Service Act ahead of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Medium-term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday, which is expected to accommodate a 3% increase to public service wages in the medium-term expenditure framework.
The ANC-aligned labour federation said the government allowed a draft resolution to fall away in the negotiations earlier this month. Cosatu said in a statement that the government had the option to reopen the matter for discussion or negotiation, but chose otherwise.
“With the offer having been withdrawn, we have now gone back to our initial demand of 10% across the board on the cost-of-living adjustment and invoked the PSCBC dispute-resolution mechanism,” the statement said.
Cosatu said the employer’s plan to implement the offer unilaterally, despite previously withdrawing it from the PSCBC, was “deceitful”.
“The collective spirit of public sector workers has always been shuffled by the blatant disregard and the continued undermining of collective bargaining by government,” Cosatu said.
Cosatu said the public service sector continued to suffer due to vacant posts and an effective “wage freeze” for public servants in the name of fiscal consolidation.
“The employer reiterated that the only provision is as per the budget amount and there seems to be no intention to find the additional budget to meet the demands of workers as presented,” the statement said.
The federation said it has declared a dispute regarding plans to implement the 3% hike. The conciliation for this dispute is scheduled for 31 October and 1 November at the PSCBC.
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