Technically, the wage dispute between the government and the public sector unions came to an end on Wednesday with the state signing a wage agreement and leaving organised labour 21 days to follow suit.
”Government is going to sign the offer and leave it on the table for 21 days to be signed by all parties,” said Public Service and Administration Minister, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi on Wednesday in Centurion, following a Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) meeting to resolve the pay dispute.
According to the PSCBC constitution, the document must be signed by all parties within the stipulated 21 days or else the agreement will fall away.
”That has never happened before,” said Edwin Mohlegedi, chairperson of the PSCBC.
He said the fact that the agreement had come this far boded well and he expected all parties to sign on the dotted line.
”Almost all the parties were ready to put pen to paper but were just waiting for the mandate from their members,” he said.
The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), the largest union within the PSCBC, had called for a week’s postponement to give them time to get mandates from across the county.
Without Cosatu, the 51% support of the PSCBC required for the wage offer to be accepted was not possible, said Popcru general secretary Abby Witbooi.
Speaking after the meeting, he said that ”technically” there was an agreement on the table pending the correct mandate being received.
The latest offer by the government provided for a 6,2% increase for public servants for this year and consumer inflation plus 0,4% for the following two years.
The offer retained a sum of R500-million to address the pay backlogs of teachers, and a one percent pay progression for public servants doing their work satisfactorily.
The Cosatu Joint Mandating Committee (JMC) said it had decided not to sign or reject the proposed draft, citing that it needed a further week ”to consult effectively with its members”.
”From reports it has become clear that not all unions have concluded the consultation processes on the draft proposal that was initially tabled by the employer on Sunday.”
The JMC said the consultation process was far more complex than initially thought or anticipated.
They also hinted that there were ”one or two more issues” that had arisen in the last 12 hours that required ”more engagement” with the employer.
”These are crucial matters; because of their sensitivity we are not at liberty to talk about them in public,” said the JMC, but hinted that it involved the R500-million allocated towards teacher back pay.
Fraser-Moleketi noted this point too but said it had been reworked. Unions believe R950-million would be required to solve the problem of teachers not receiving wage increases between 1996 and 2002.
Witbooi, fellow member of the JMC, also said that unions were caught in the middle of a very ”sensitive situation” that if not managed properly could have serious implications for Cosatu.
He said that while the Cosatu leadership was almost prepared to sign, they needed to report back to their members and inform them of the situation.
”If we upset them now we won’t have their support in the future,” he said.
Other union leaders said the hesitation to sign came from the fact that no one union wanted to be seen as the first to sign and thereby, ”selling out their members”.
”It’s a major sell-out, lets be honest,” said the Secretary General of the National Union of Public Servants and Allied Workers Union, Success Mataitsane, who threatened to stand alone against ”government’s forced implementation of the wage package”.
”I’ve told them [the other unions] not to give in so easily.”
Fifty of Mataitsane’s supporters toyi-toyied outside the gates of the negotiations venue in Centurion.
Anton Louwrens, general manager of the Public Servants Association (PSA), believed however that very little could now derail the agreement.
”There were one or two points that we asked government to look at when we started today’s talks and they went away and agreed to amend the sections. Basically, some of the unions just needed more time to get all the mandates from the various provinces,” he said. – Sapa