When public-service trade unions decide whether to accept or reject the government’s final pay offer on Wednesday it will not be ”one union, one vote”.
Voting rights are assigned by the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) to unions according to the size of their membership, and a majority (50% plus one) is needed for a deal.
The state has given unions a deadline of 6pm on Wednesday to accept its revised offer. The settlement salary package includes a 7,5% wage increase.
The union with the largest percent of the vote is the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) with 23,137%. Sadtu has already indicated that it would not accept the offer.
”If the employer does not improve the offer, we will have further disruption of schools,” said Don Pasquallie, Sadtu’s deputy general secretary, after the new deadline was imposed.
Three other Congress of South African Trade Unions affiliates have voting rights on the council.
They are the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union with 16,491% of the vote, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) with 10,797% and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa with 5,855%.
There are three Independent Labour Caucus unions on the council, the biggest being the Public Servants’ Association (PSA), with 18,022 %.
Next in line is the National Professional Teachers’ Union of South Africa, with 8,606%, and the South African Policing Union with 6,540%.
The final grouping is the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa, the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers’ Union and the National Teachers’ Union, which act together on the council and hold 10,511% of the vote.
A full PSCBC meeting is scheduled for 6pm when the unions will make their positions known.
The government has said if the ”settlement” offer is not signed by 6pm, it will revert back to its previous lesser offer, and make it the final offer.
Its previous offer included a 7,25% increase but did not contain many of the other benefits in the settlement offer, such as an improved housing allowance or the collapsing of certain lower salary scales into higher ones.
It also did not include any agreement that workers dismissed during the strike would be allowed back.
The strike, which began on June 1, has crippled some state institutions and may cost the economy billions of rand, while the impact of higher wages could push up inflation and interest rates.
Union officials accused the government of using strong-arm tactics in its latest offer.
”We are not sure whether it is talks that we are going for anymore because this is now just [the government’s] take it or leave it situation,” Mannie de Clercq, general secretary of the PSA, said.
Analysts say the strike has become a demonstration of workers’ power ahead of a leadership congress this year that may see the African National Congress name a successor to Mbeki.
Postponed
Meanwhile, an application by the South African Police Service (SAPS) for an interdict to stop police officers joining the public-service strike was postponed in the Johannesburg Labour Court on Wednesday.
Acting on behalf of the SAPS, Paul Kennedy SC asked Judge AJ Ngalwana to postpone the matter between the police and Popcru to Thursday as the police had only received a supplementary affidavit from Popcru early on Wednesday morning.
The union is threatening to go on strike despite the Labour Relations Act and the Police Act prohibiting police from striking.
Kennedy asked for the case to be postponed to Thursday for time to reply to the affidavit.
Outside the courtroom Popcru lawyer Kevin Allardyce said: ”We want finality on the matter.”
Ngalwana said the interim order forbidding Popcru from striking would still stand until the matter was heard on Thursday. — Sapa, Reuters