Nehawu says it will intensify strike at Sars

SA Revenue Service (Sars) employees are expected to continue with their strike on Monday. The third day of the strike coincides with the release of the preliminary results of revenue collection for 2018/2019, with expected revenue revised downwards during finance minister Tito Mboweni’s 2019 budget address.

The strike has affected the tax agency’s contact centres, walkin branches and to some extent ports of entry into SA.

The strike, the first in a decade at the tax agency, started on Thursday as a result of a deadlock in wage negotiations between Sars and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and the Public Servants Association (PSA), which collectively represent almost 10,000 workers at the Sars bargaining council.

The significant issue in the deadlock relates to the term the wage increases are negotiated for. Unions are pushing for a single term increase to allow for new negotiations in 2020, while Sars’s offer last week for an 8% increase in a multi-term agreement was rejected. The unions demanded an 11.4% increase for a one-year term.

Nehawu said on Sunday, following a meeting with its national bargaining forum at Sars, that a decision had been taken to continue with the strike. It would also receive a mandate from its members in relation to the negotiations.

“The union will from here on intensify the strike to ensure our members and workers’ demands are met by the employer,” Nehawu’s secretariat said on Sunday.

It was unclear whether the PSA would strike on Monday.

Sars and the unions continued negotiations over the weekend. Stefan Viljoen, labour relations officer for the PSA, said that meetings were held on Friday evening as well as on Sunday afternoon in a bid to resolve the impasse.

The Small Business Institute on Sunday appealed to workers’ representatives and Sars leadership to “urgently” resolve their wage dispute, which it said was threatening small businesses in SA. “The strike is the latest blow on small business, which is still reeling from weeks of load-shedding. Small business is already saddled with the burden of regulatory compliance. They cannot afford more delays occasioned by the industrial action,” said Bernard Swanepoel, the executive director.