Glenda Daniels
With a week to go before the latest deadline for settlement, a draft accord between unions and the government, leaked to the Mail & Guardian, highlights key outstanding differences on retrenchments and staff transfers in the state bureaucracy.
The government has been pushing for a deal since last year’s public service job summit, arguing that job flexibility and some retrenchments as a last resort are essential to cutting costs and improving efficiency in the public service. The negotiations have been difficult and protracted.
After a deadlock last month when the 12 public service unions accused the government of pushing on unilaterally with retrenchments without retraining or redeployment a new deadline for agreement was set for the end of this month.
The document, Processes and Procedures Governing the Transformation and Restructuring of the Public Service, forms the basis for a restructuring settlement. But it shows major stumbling blocks remain. A failure to resolve these could lead to further upheavals in the state sector this year, labour analysts say.
This week’s strike report by labour consultant NMG-Levy says the potential for strike action has been minimised in sectors such as vehicles, mining and metal because of long-term agreements. However, the report says “the public sector will be affected by government action in so far as restructuring is concerned”.
The leaked draft document shows that state negotiators have agreed on the need for a skills audit of all employees “taking into account qualifications, current and past experience in relevant and related fields, training requirement, other skills and competencies”. Labour has repeatedly demanded this.
Agreement has also been reached on affirmative action for designated groups and adherence to the Skills Development Act. However, a bone of contention remains the “redeployment” of redundant personnel. Labour wants staff transfers to be confined to the public service, while the government is prepared to explore private job opportunities.
There is further discord over the training of employees to fill vacant posts. Unions have rejected a government proposal that training be limited to 12 months.
Labour is also pressing for vacant posts in the lower wage categories to be reserved for the possible placement of redundant workers. The government has rejected this, presumably because it wants to abolish such posts.
Unions are also resisting a government proposal that workers moved to a lesser-graded position should take corresponding salary cuts.
Government and union negotiators have also clashed over what should happen to workers who refuse to be “reasonably redeployed”. The state argues that they should be fired without severance pay, while the unions believe they should not lose their jobs.
The encouraging aspect of the draft document, says one unionist, is that “at last some detail about restructuring is being negotiated. Government has also agreed to carry out a skills audit, so we will finally know how many people are redundant and where.”
But another unionist warns that there are “so many points of differences, from such different ideological positions that it might be impossible to reach agreement. There might well be strike action this year.”