Africa-Press – South-Africa. Unions in the public service have given the government a week to respond to their demands in the deadlocked wage talks, adding that they were prepared to continue putting pressure on ministers after a national day of action on Tuesday.
Seven unions, from three of the country’s largest labour federations and representing an estimated 800 000 members, embarked on a one-day strike in eight of the country’s provinces.
The public service wage talks have remained deadlocked as the government sticks to its offer of a 3% baseline salary increase plus a monthly cash amount of R1 045 tabled at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in September. The unions want a pay hike of 10%.
Unions marched to locations including the National Treasury offices and the Department of Public Service and Administration in Pretoria, where acting minister Thulas Nxesi received a memorandum of demands and was heckled mercilessly by union members.
The memorandum of demands called on the government to put an end to its “attack on collective bargaining” and to commit to a resolution signed at the PSCBC, including the 2018 wage deal that the government reneged on.
“We demand a reversal of austerity measures that are targeted to the public sector as a whole. We demand that government … protect PSCBC as a legitimate institution for social dialogue and stop disempowering it. We demand a real increment of 10% that will assist to retain the buying power of the public servants,” the memorandum of demands said.
While union structures in the Western Cape chose to postpone their participation due to the SA National Taxi Council’s (Santaco) ongoing taxi strike in that province, Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo told News24 that the national demonstrations went according to the union’s plans.
A Hospersa spokesperson said: “The day was a huge success. Members from various unions including Hospersa came out in their numbers to support the plight of public servants. The memorandum was handed to the respective government representatives in all the cities.”
Hospersa said it was unfortunate that the Cape Town march had to be postponed, due to it coinciding with Santaco’s strike in the Western Cape.
Denosa spokesperson Sibongiseni Delihlazo said the union regarded the day as a success and that Denosa was pleased with the national day of action as an effective “warning shot” to the government.
“From where we are, we are quite happy with the turnout of the nurses from all fronts. We have given the employer seven days, but the turnout was pleasing. The streets of Pretoria were painted red, yellow, and white, and we also hear that even in KwaZulu-Natal, in Mpumalanga and many provinces as well,” said Delihlazo.
Delihlazo said if the demands of labour remained ignored, labour would proceed to the next course of action, which “would have been triggered by great anger from public servants”.
Public Service and Administration spokesperson Moses Mushi said the public service did not experience any significant disruptions to its operations on Tuesday, stressing that any work stoppage in the public service would be unlawful.
“So far, we have not experienced any disruption of services and where protesters may try to disrupt services, law enforcement would intervene. There are picketing rules in place to manage the strike that labour and government have agreed to ensure that services are not disrupted,” said Mushi.
The Department of Public Service and Administration has called on all unions in the public service to return to the bargaining table to finalise the current round of wage talks before February’s budget speech when expenditure ceilings for all government departments will become more fixed.
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