Glenda Daniels and Nawaal Deane
Amid signs that half a million public service workers have voted to strike, government upped its wage offer in state sector wage talks to 8,5% for lower paid workers and 6,5% for others.
Indications from a nearly completed ballot process show that the majority of union members has voted in favour of a strike, unionists say.
But not all the 12 unions, who are demanding 9%, will necessarily accept government’s revised proposal.
A National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) source says some unions may accept the new offer, and that “this is the government’s way of dividing us”.
Unionists from the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) three biggest public service unions, Nehawu, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), say workers are expressing frustration at the way in which salary negotiations are conducted year after year.
They say that because curtailing personnel expenditure in the public service is high on Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s list of priorities, the annual wage increase is set at a percentage below inflation in the budget months before negotiations start. The effect has been repeated salary cuts.
“Our members are sick of the fact that negotiations are always linked to the budget and the curtailing of personnel expenditure,” says Nehawu’s Moloantoa Molaba.
Nehawu says it may compromise, but will not settle for less than 7,5% provided this is tied down to a once-off payment to all civil servants of R850 and that wage increases are backdated to April 1.
Popcru’s Siyavuya Sineke says salary increments are of more pressing concern to police and prisons officers because they are among the lowest-paid in the public service.
He adds: “The timing of the salary negotiations should be before the Finance Ministry sets its budget. The current system makes a mockery of the whole public service bargaining chamber. The government does not know the real meaning of negotiations.”
Sadtu, the biggest public sector union, says balloting results indicate 80% support for a strike. The union’s general secretary Thulas Nxesi reiterates that members are “extremely frustrated with the lack of union participation in the budget process. They want us to simply fit in with the medium-term expenditure framework without being involved in it.”
He adds that if the government is serious about labour relations, it can raise the funds for increases by legislating further appropriations.
The chairperson of Parliament’s finance committee, Barbara Hogan, hit back at union complaints. “There is a finite amount of money and the government has to draw up a plan on how to spend the money.
“Should public servants have the first right of claim? Should they take priority? What is left over for other groups like pensioners?”
Hogan denies that fixing the public service wage bill before pay talks is a problem. “There is flexibility, as figures do change in the negotiation process. Government, just like companies, projects its revenues and looks at affordability.”
Public service department spokesperson Thembela Kulu argues that the benchmarking of public service pay in the budget is standard procedure among employers, and that the percentage increase is not predetermined.