A working document tabled at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council on Wednesday offers progress in public-service pay talks, Public Service and Administration Minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi said.
”This is a major breakthrough and while much work still needs to be done, we can now start charting our way forward,” she told the National Assembly on Wednesday afternoon.
With this document on the table, the minister hopes there will be no need for industrial action by public-service unions on Friday. Unions have been demanding a 12% across-the-board increase, while the government has been offering 6%.
The document is intended to provide a basis for the general salary adjustments of employees ”for the forthcoming years” and to introduce revised salary structures for specific professional occupations.
These include teachers, health professionals and certain legal professionals — ultimately about 80% of the public service.
It deals with timelines, career pathing, pay progression, grade progression, seniority, increased competencies and performance, all aimed at attracting and retaining professionals and specialists, she said. ”It also looks to replace the existing scarce-skills framework for the public service with the introduction of revised salary structures.”
It includes non-pensionable allowances, certain leave matters, the medical-aid subsidy, aligning the public service with the requirements of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, and processes to review certain existing terms and conditions of employment.
”Labour has agreed to consider this proposal in its entirety while negotiating certain aspects in the proposal,” Fraser-Moleketi said.
‘Major advance’
Agreement has been reached on the larger part of the proposal, with the exceptions of, among others, the level of the salary increase, medical-aid conditions and pay progression for those remaining outside the new pay framework for professionals and other specialists.
”We consider this a major advance. We have collectively moved from a deadlock situation to one in which we are able to negotiate on the future nature of the public service,” Fraser-Moleketi said.
The general welfare of public servants is a prime consideration. The employer has the responsibility of ensuring that benefits in areas such as pension provision and healthcare are available to ensure a healthy work force, and retirement free of insecurity.
”We must be vigilant that these provisions are not eroded though short-term expediency, such as higher salaries at the expense of longer-term security and broader conditions of service. Those who labour under particular conditions, such as on weekends or at night, must receive proper compensation for the toll this takes on their personal lives.”
The state has to balance what it spends on wages and benefits with what it spends on the goods and services it provides to the populace.
”This is particularly important considering that the developmental character of our state requires that we consider the longer-term implication of this expenditure on the lives of the disadvantaged and needy, as we seek to fulfil their justified aspirations to a better life,” the minister said.
The government’s offer seeks to ensure that the buying power of public servants is not eroded through inflation, that their general well-being is addressed through provision of appropriate medical aid and housing allowances, and that in certain special categories, non-pensionable allowances are adjusted.
In addition, a new dispensation for professionals and specialists has been put on the table to ensure people with these skills are attracted to the public service and their careers are developed within the service, so they are retained.
Increases
The demands originally tabled by labour were impossible for the state to meet. They would have added R200-billion to the wage bill in the first year of implementation — more than doubling the current wage bill.
”Clearly we were a long way apart,” Fraser-Moleketi said.
Earlier on Wednesday, it was reported that top nurses would receive increases in the region of 50%, but a general increase of 6% would apply to the bulk of public servants. The minister told the National Assembly there would be a new group of senior nurses — ”with 10 years’ or more experience” — receiving this increase from July 1 this year.
Educators of a senior nature would be included from January 1 next year, followed by social workers, engineers and architects from July 2008. Correctional service officials would follow from July 2009, she said.
This compromise was forged in talks with unions that continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning, she noted.
If the strike goes ahead, there will be no schooling from Friday, the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union said on Wednesday.
”On Friday morning in our sector there will be no schooling. There will be picketing, mass meetings and marches to mobilise our members,” said general secretary Thulas Nxesi. ”That strike will only be called off once our demands are met, and our demands are well known.”
Fifteen public-sector unions are set to go on strike, including independent unions, Congress of South African Trade Unions affiliates and Federation of Unions of South Africa affiliates. Sectors represented include health, education and police. — Sapa, I-Net Bridge