It was regrettable that immigration officers had joined the public-service strike, the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) said on Monday.
TBCSA spokesperson Reynold Thakhuli said the decision by the essential services committee (ESC) to allow the officers to join the strike was detrimental to competitiveness.
”The decision will without any doubt affect our competitiveness as a country, more especially at our airports with the immigration and customs personnel also downing tools,” said Thakhuli.
Last Friday the Public Servants Association said that immigration workers were granted permission to take part in the public-service strike by the ESC.
Thakhuli said with workers being on strike, the issuing of passports and other documents necessary to enter South Africa would take longer than usual.
The tourism industry was preparing for the 2010 World Cup, and the strike would influence the number of potential investors coming into the country, he said.
”This kind of action could have been averted a long time ago as the consequence of this industrial action is baring negative effects on the tourism sector and the economy at large,” he said.
‘We’re still standing at 10%’
Meanwhile, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) affiliates will meet on Monday to come up with a range of percentage increases they are prepared to accept to end the three-week-old public-service strike.
It is understood that the Independent Labour Caucus has already set a percentage range within which it can accept a deal.
”The Cosatu unions have not come with any percentage. We’re still standing at 10%,” Cosatu president Willie Madisha said on Sunday. ”We’ll be looking at ranges to finalise this thing.”
Madisha was speaking from the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in Centurion, south of Pretoria, where government and union negotiators were thrashing out the remaining sticking points.
The issue of a percentage increase will be discussed in a full council meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday.
”We are discussing occupation-specific dispensation, housing, medical aid and the return to work,” said Madisha. ”We think we can be able to move forward; we have narrowed the differences, the only major problem is around the percentage.” – Sapa