/ 8 June 2007

Public-sector unions make revised offer

Public-service unions officially made a counter-proposal, demanding a 10% wage increase from the government at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council on Friday.

”Unions’ demands remain the same but in order to facilitate the reaching of a settlement the unions have agreed to put on the table a proposal of 10% for 2007/08 financial year,” Don Pasquallie, South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) deputy general secretary, said on behalf of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).

He said Sadtu was still demanding 12% but that the union was outvoted by the others.

The unions’ counter-proposal also makes provision for a year-on-year CPIX (consumer price inflation less mortgage costs) plus 3% increase for next year.

”The other demands of the unions include that the same medical aid benefits be offered to all public servants, irrespective of the medical aid scheme they belong to, and we are still demanding a home owners’ allowance based on a bond of R300 000,” Pasquallie said.

”We have not weakened [our position] in order to find a solution, find a settlement on this matter; we have a counter-proposal but unions reserve the right to move back to their original demands,” he added.

The counter-proposal also contains several other demands, including certain allowances and more specifics on their occupation-specific dispensation.

Government negotiators asked for an adjournment and went into a separate caucus to study the 12-page proposal.

Pasquallie said even if an agreement on the wage demands is reached over the weekend, union leaders would only consult with their members on Monday to determine if a new offer could be signed.

Arrests as strike intensifies

Meanwhile, two unionists were arrested in Cape Town as public services sought to intensify their strike on Friday.

Cosatu had received a ”huge amount” of support from strikers in the Western Cape on Friday, said the union’s provincial secretary, Tony Ehrenreich.

However, Ehrenreich said the party was ”very concerned with police brutality”.

His comments came shortly after two union leaders from the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) were arrested in Cape Town on Friday afternoon.

Nehawu provincial secretary Suraya Jawoodeen said provincial chairperson Stuart Marshall and metro secretary Thembela Gazi were arrested as a picket outside the provincial legislature was being dispersed.

Jawoodeen said police claimed the two had held an illegal gathering.

Earlier, a group of health workers protesting outside the provincial legislature said they were on strike because they could no longer live in ”poverty”.

One nurse, who had been working for 22 years, said she was supporting her six children on her salary of R4 000 a month.

Another striker, a hospital messenger for 20 years, said she was getting less than R1 000 a month.

”Why doesn’t she [Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi] give the money?” one striker asked.

Fraser-Moleketi was using the money they wanted as ”pocket money for her grandchildren”, said another.

Provincial health department spokesperson Faiza Steyn said criminal charges would be laid and disciplinary action taken against strikers identified as part of a group who ”trashed” the kitchen and burnt bins at Tygerberg Hospital on Friday.

Tygerberg Hospital spokesperson Martie Carstens said 292 hospital staff had not reported for duty on Friday.

She also said that on Friday morning protesters at the hospital had intermittently prevented traffic from flowing into the premises.

‘Irresponsible’

The South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) has slammed Cosatu’s call to extend the strike to the private sector, saying that it was ”irresponsible and does little to resolve the dispute”.

”It certainly ratchets up the dispute by bringing the entire economy to a standstill,” said Deidré Penfold, president of Sacob.

Penfold was commenting on the call by Cosatu urging its members in the private sector to join their counterparts in the public sector in sympathy.

The public-service strike, which entered its second week on Friday, has seen schools and hospitals being deserted. — Sapa, I-Net Bridge