Minister explains 7.5% offer

ACTING Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi said the government was offering a sum total of 7.5% despite the Public Service Unions under the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) saying they have no idea about this offer.

The unions have demanded a wage increase from the government. Nxesi said the 7.5% offer comprised the following: non-pensionable cash allowance of R1 000 after tax, which amounts to 4.5%, and a 3% pensionable increase across the board.

He said the offer had been ignored. “Some in the media fraternity have ignored this fact of a 7.5% government offer and have chosen to continue with the misinformation of only 3%, as propagated by some in organised labour. The result is a grand scale of misleading public service employees and the public at large,” said Nxesi.

The Daily News reported at the beginning of the week that the trade unions said the 7.5% offer was untrue.

Denosa president Simon Hlungwani said that no7.5% offer had been presented at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council, but the government had been trying to pull the wool over public servants’ eyes by distorting the offer.