Pay demands ‘will cripple sector’

THE South African Local Government Association said yesterday it could not meet municipal workers’ demands for a pay increase of 13% without crippling municipalities.

THE South African Local Government Association (Salga) said yesterday it could not meet municipal workers’ demands for a pay increase of 13% without crippling municipalities.

Talks between Salga, the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) and the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) have entered a tough phase, with Imatu publicly stating it was seeking legal advice over the basis for the talks.

Last week Salga said it wanted to negotiate a new agreement on maternity leave and other benefits, and also a new agreement on the disciplinary code for staff.

Imatu’s general secretary Johan Koen said Salga was negotiating unfairly. “Salga effectively wishes to ignore all the time, money and resources that went into the establishment of the collective agreements and start again. Imatu cannot accept a blatant move to diminish the existing rights of our members,” he said.

The unions said they could not rule out a strike action if Salga did not at least offer a double-digit pay hike. Municipal workers went on strike in 2010 and last year, but did not get a double-digit wage hike last year.

Salga said local government workers were on average paid a minimum wage higher than the average in the public sector and some private sector industries. Paying large rises would damage how municipalities operated.

“Secondly, exorbitant increases run the risk of crippling municipalities and even decreasing the probability of filling vacancies due to depreciated funds,” said Salga spokeswoman Milisa Kentane.

Since talks began earlier this month, Salga had offered a general pay hike of 4%, later raised to 4,5%. Imatu and Samwu, representing workers at Salga’s local government bargaining council, demanded 13%, down from 15%.