The government and public unions met for all of 10 minutes on Wednesday night before deciding to postpone wage talks to Friday to give unions more time to canvass their members.
A government-imposed deadline for unions to accept a wage settlement offer, which included a 7,5% wage increase, came and went at 6pm without the parties meeting.
Government chief negotiator Kenny Govender denied there was ever any deadline, but said the government had come to the end of the line of negotiations.
”As government we made our position very very clear when we tabled a final written offer; it is very clear in that it indicates the end of the line for government,” Govender said.
He said the government’s final written offer was still standing at 7,25%, but admitted that 7,5% was discussed. ”It is something we are prepared to consider as part of a settlement to the current dispute.”
Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha said not all of the unions had a mandate to discuss the government’s offer.
Trade union the PSA’s Manie de Clerq said there was just not enough time for unions to consider the government’s offer in one day. ”We have members all over the country. We could simply just not get to everybody at this stage; we could only ballot about 50% of our members.”
However, Govender was optimistic of a settlement on Friday. ”It is very difficult; it’s still touch and go. It’s very critical. I’m still confident that we’ll find each other. I believe we are very close,” he said.
Earlier, there was some excitement when protesters ran amok on the council’s premises. The small but vocal group of labour supporters activated a fire extinguisher on the bottom floor of the building.
A caucus meeting on the second floor between labour negotiators — whom the protesters were supporting — had to be evacuated. The building was emptied for the air to clear for about half an hour and people returned inside shortly before 8pm.
The short meeting between government and union negotiators started shortly afterwards. — Sapa