THE South African Local Government Association (Salga) on Thursday declared a labour dispute with unions representing the country’s 200 000 municipal workers.
Salga, which represents South Africa’s municipal employers has refused to meet union demands for a minimum of 15% or a R475 increase, offering instead a six percent across-the-board raise.
The Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union, (Imatu) the union representing more than 70 000 of the employees, attempted to avoid a deadlock by proposing an increase of approximately 10%.
The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) represents the remaining 30 000 employees.
Imatu representative Cynthia Hayward said Salga was being unreasonable.
”It’s been nine years since these workers got an increase equal to the rate of inflation. They’ve been getting token raises of five or six percent since 1993,” she said.
Imatu also proposed during negotiations that municipal employees be paid a minimum wage of R2 200 per month.
”The Bureau of Market Research wage survey has shown that this is the minimum sum needed for a South African family to survive. Municipal workers currently earn a minimum wage of R1800,” Hayward said.
Salga rejected all proposals made by Imatu and Samwu and declared a deadlock.
The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration is due to mediate on the issue on 16 and 17 May. – Sapa