Easing the burden of paying higher wages

The government will develop a remuneration strategy in its three spheres and public entities to help provinces and national departments cope with the added financial burden of footing public servants’ wage hikes.

The government will develop a remuneration strategy in its three spheres and public entities to help provinces and national departments cope with the added financial burden of footing public servants’ wage hikes.

The department of public service & administration says this strategy, among other interventions, will ensure the publicsector wage bill remains within the budget ceiling.

Finance minister Tito Mboweni wants the provinces and national departments to absorb the R30bn government wage bill increase emanating from the 2018 agreement with organised labour. He announced in his medium-term budget policy statement last Wednesday that the Treasury did not have funds to add to the wage bill.

Reacting to Mboweni’s announcement, Eastern Cape finance MEC Oscar Mabuyane said he did not know where the money would come from.

Limpopo provincial government spokesperson Phuti Seloba said the province would “cope” with the bill.

The department said it was calling on government employers to implement strict management of overtime, performance bonuses and leave.

Mboweni suggested natural attrition as one way the government could deal with the hefty wage bill. He said it was not sustainable, warning it could eat into funds for service delivery.

His sentiments were met with outrage by organised labour, with trade unions such as the Public Servants Association of SA (PSA) saying the Treasury’s inability to foot the bill would unsettle labour relations between the government and its employees. The PSA said if the Treasury was unable to pay the increases, the government had negotiated in bad faith.

Fedusa and Cosatu said public servants were forced to pay for governance failures.