A small group of striking public servants were protesting outside the premises the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) on Tuesday.
Government and labour negotiators were scheduled to meet at the council’s office in Centurion, south of Pretoria, later on Tuesday afternoon.
The parties are to tackle the remaining obstacle, this year’s percentage wage increase, to try to resolve the wage dispute.
Leaders of public-service unions affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) were to meet at the PSCBC at noon before discussing — with other trade unions — a range of percentage increases they would be prepared to accept to end a three-week old public-service strike.
A full council meeting including labour and government negotiators was scheduled to start at 3pm.
In the meantime the protesters voiced their support for the unions.
On Friday the protesters forced their way through the gates of the PSCBC, but a confrontation was avoided when union leaders gave an undertaken that the protesters would not vandalise property.
The strike continues
Meanwhile, Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said on Monday there was no sign that public servants were getting tired of the protest action.
”The strike continues … there is no sign that workers are getting tired; instead they are more angry,” he told a Cosatu conference in Boksburg.
”We want the strike to end as soon as possible. We want it to end in terms that would be more beneficial to workers,” Vavi said. ”The strike continues as long as that has not happened.”
Vavi said he never expected the strike to reach 16 days.
He said he thought the strike would only last for two days before the government came up with a resolution. – Sapa