Barry Streek and Drew Forrest
Twelve public service trade unions representing half-a-million workers declared a dispute with the government on Thursday, claiming departments were pushing ahead with restructuring despite ongoing talks on a framework for such measures.
Much depends on these delicate negotiations in the public service bargaining council. The government wants union acceptance of a policy aimed at streamlining the public service and improving service provision, if necessary by redeploying or, as a last resort, retrenching workers.
The general secretary of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, Fikile Majola, said: “No framework is in place, but these actions are still taking place.”
If the government did not draw back from its unilateral actions, labour could not be blamed if the talks were not concluded by a December 12 deadline.
All government departments were continuing with restructuring, particularly the departments of health, agriculture and public works, Majola complained.
The Department of Public Service and Administration said the unions wanted all service delivery initiatives and transformation at all levels of the government halted until there was an agreement.
Describing the dispute as “rather premature”, Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said it would affect progress in the talks. She called on the unions to return to the bargaining table “to further our common transformation goals”.
She said one of the “complexities” was a Congress of South African Trade Unions decision linking privatisation and the restructuring of the public service. She believed there was no connection between the two.
The public service department also said the unions’ demands fell outside the scope of the bargaining forum, which lacked the authority to halt service delivery initiatives that did not affect human resources.
The discussions on a restructuring framework are a sequel to the public service summit early this year, at which the government and unions endorsed a commitment to the creation of “quality” jobs in the public service.
The government understood this to mean that redeployments and retrenchments would be possible where jobs were redundant. However, union leaders insisted they had not endorsed retrenchments of any kind.