The government formally tabled a final public-service wage proposal, including a 7,5% increase, at wage talks on Friday — but unions said they were not yet ready to sign the offer.
Government and union negotiators started a full Public-Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) meeting in Centurion at about 2.30pm, following several delays.
Unions have 21 days to accept or reject the offer. Until then, the wage talks are suspended.
“The majority of public-service unions meeting in Centurion agreed that they cannot at this stage sign any agreement with the employer,” said Congress of South African Trade Unions president Willie Madisha.
Speaking at a joint press conference by trade unions shortly after the offer was tabled, he said all public-service unions will meet on Sunday to decide on the way forward. “In the meantime, the strike continues.”
Apart from a 7,5% increase, the government’s offer includes an increase of the consumer price index less mortgage costs (CPIX) plus 1% for next year. It also makes provision for the implementation for revised salary structures for professionals in the public service, an increased government employees’ medical-scheme contribution and a R500 housing allowance.
Earlier, protesters barged through the gates of the PSCBC. Police called for reinforcements and cordoned off the street in front of the PSCBC after the few hundred protesters barged their way in. Negotiators were forced to park their cars blocks away and walk to the building.
Most of the demonstrators were wearing the red T-shirts of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union and the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union. They were holding up posters still bearing a demand for a 12% increase — unions have since lowered that to 9%.
Police officers not striking
South Africa’s 130 000 police officers are not allowed to join the public-service strike, the Johannesburg Labour Court ruled earlier on Friday.
About 33 000 South African Police Service (SAPS) support and administrative staff, however, may do so, provided they give the required legal notice, acting Judge Vuyani Ngalwana ruled.
“It cannot be cogently argued … that the interruption of the service of tea ladies and gardeners, on the one spectrum, and human-resource personnel and finance administrators on the other, at SAPS would ‘endanger the life, personal safety or health of the … population,” he found.
Police officers are employed under the South African Police Act and civilian staff under the Public Service Act. The latter made up about 20% of the total SAPS workforce of 163 000.
Ngalwana’s ruling finalised an interim order granted last Friday that forbade police officers from striking, and the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) from inciting its members to strike. The order also required Popcru to tell its members in writing what was required of them.
Ngalwana further gave Popcru; its president, Zizamele Cebekhulu; general secretary, Abbey Witbooi; and spokesperson Pat Ntsobi until August 13 to show cause why they should not be held in contempt of court. They risk a R500 000 fine or 30 days’ jail after failing to comply with last Friday’s court order.
Popcru has until July 20 to file answering affidavits.
Nurses on strike
Meanwhile, about 700 nurses and student nurses went on strike at the RK Khan provincial hospital in Chatsworth, KwaZulu-Natal, on Friday morning. They were protesting against the heavy patient load and for a wage increase, they said.
“Nurses cannot even afford to buy a house,” said a nurse who asked not to be named. “The government must understand that there’s a heavy constraint on us to work such a long shift, with such a heavy workload, but with not much of a salary.”
RK Khan is the only government hospital that has not been involved in the public-service strike, they claimed, adding that as a result, it is taking in patients from strike-hit hospitals.
Patients in the hospital’s intensive-care and critical-care units and those on ventilators have been moved to private hospitals, said RK Khan hospital board chairperson Cyril Pillay. Community volunteers and cleaning staff are helping out, and no new patients are being admitted.
Community leader Visvin Reddy said there were 293 patients in the hospital at the start of the strike. “Since the start of the public-sector strike, many hospitals have not been functional,” he said. “RK Khan, however, had a committed band who worked continuously while other provincial hospitals referred patients to them.
“The burden was just too heavy on their shoulders and they could not manage the extra workload being referred from other hospitals.”
Protest
In Phoenix, Durban, a small group of about 30 chanting protesters gathered outside the Mahatma Gandhi Hospital, said Superintendent Vincent Mdunge. Police were on the scene to prevent them from entering the hospital and intimidating working employees, he said. “There is absolutely no problem.”
Mdunge said some of the protesters were believed to be hospital employees.
The KwaZulu-Natal health department was aware of the situation at both hospitals, said spokesperson Leon Mbangwa. “It is intimidation and violence as usual at both hospitals,” he said.
The department condemned striking workers’ attempts at preventing nurses from entering some of its hospitals. “[The department] was appalled to learn that strikers [were] wielding sticks and other dangerous material,” he said.
The incidents have been reported to the police.
Mbangwa commended working employees for their commitment and for disregarding threats.
Anyone wanting to find out the condition of a patient in a KwaZulu-Natal hospital can call the toll-free number Tel: 0800 005 133