Unions to shun talks with state

Row erupts over 7% increase

PUBLIC service unions said yesterday they would not take part in any national or provincial bargaining council talks until agreement with the state on a 0.6% wage clawback.

No discussions with the government on any substantive issue will take place until public servants receive their 7% wage increase for this year‚ an issue which was receiving priority‚ Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) first deputy president Letsatsi Modise said yesterday.

The agreement was “anchored” upon the 7% wage hike and without it “we do not have the basis of a multiterm agreement‚” said Modise at a joint briefing of both independent and Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) aligned public sector unions.

The wage agreement reached last month was welcomed for averting strike action that could have crippled hospitals‚ shut schools and affected basic services.

The state has however made clear the additional R66-billion cost of the deal will all but wipe out the Treasury’s contingency reserves and likely require freezing the size of the public service.

The three-year agreement would have seen 1.3 million public servants receive a 7% increase this year‚ followed by consumer price inflation plus 1% in subsequent years.

The government subsequently announced it would deduct 0.6% from salary increases due to higher-thanexpected inflation in the last year of the previous wage agreement‚ which includes clauses allowing for inflation differences.

A joint legal team representing the state‚ labour and the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council has been established to give legal opinion on the issue. — BDlive