Sars employees down tools

Thousands of South African Revenue Services (Sars) employees downed tools on Monday demanding better pay, a union said.

“The union membership felt that given the employer’s intractable attitude and his about-turn on the set conditions for a strike suspension we should withdraw our labour until such time we have received a satisfactory offer,” said Sizwe Pamla of the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).

Workers are demanding a 13% pay hike.

The revenue service has offered workers a wage hike of between 9% and 11% on a sliding scale for employees of respective grades, Sars spokesperson Adrian Lackay said on Sunday.

There were protests outside Sars offices throughout the country on Monday.

In Durban about 200 Sars employees protested while police monitored them.

Some carried placards that read: ‘Is 13% too much to ask from the best department in South Africa?”

Pamla said members of the Public Service Association (PSA) had also taken part in the strike.

He said 70% of Sars employees belonged to Nehawu and the PSA.—Sapa