Now for people power
Pay increases far above inflation, given to the public sector since 2007, and ultimately paid for by taxpayers, are not affordable. But the government’s call for an increase freeze has enraged the unions, who have threatened to strike. The minister has pu
Civil society is backing the move by public service & administration minister Senzo Mchunu to canvass public opinion to break the deadlock in the public sector wage talks.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has written to Mchunu, urging him to “stand his ground” over a zero pay increase, and has outlined “factors that support this stance”, says Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage. The public and taxpayers, he adds, are largely responsible for footing the “bloated government wage bill” so “it is only right that they have input when it comes to public service salaries and bonuses”.
Deadlock was reached at the Public Sector Co-ordinating Bargaining Council recently, when the government tabled a 0% cost-ofliving adjustment for 2021/2022.
In a novel move, Mchunu then called on the public to propose ways to break the impasse.
Cosatu unions and the Public Servants Association (PSA) were, of course, incensed. Between them they represent most of the 1.3-million public servants. Their wage bill was about R630bn in the past financial year and the government says it simply cannot afford it.
The unions are demanding an increase of inflation (CPI) plus 4%. The Reserve Bank expects inflation to average 4.3% this year. They also want a R2,500 housing allowance, a 12% of basic pay risk allowance during national disasters such as Covid, and the filling of all vacant public service posts.
But Mchunu has stressed that the government is broke and is heading “towards a fiscal cliff”. He appealed to the negotiators to avoid confrontation over wages.
Outa believes “the past aboveinflation increases handed out to the public sector since 2007 — which have averaged at 45% above inflation — are unsustainable and the state’s call for a salary increase freeze is a rational one,” says Duvenage.
“Furthermore, the Treasury’s research shows that, given the past excessive increases, over 95% of public servants earn more than the bottom 50% of registered taxpayers. This means that a wage increase is not even a case of trying to correct an underpaid sector.”
Labour analyst and DA deputy labour spokesperson Michael Bagraim says Mchunu’s call for public input on the matter is a wise move. “It’s going to look very bad if he signs an agreement and then says: ‘Hey, I’m sorry, I have got no money.’ The public will probably say: ‘Look, you don’t have money, you must not sign.’”
Bagraim says most of the small businesses he deals with are paying 2%-3% increases.
In December, the Labour Court of appeal upheld a Treasury decision not to implement the final part of a three-year public sector wage deal, at a cost of R38bn, for lack of money. The unions were furious and appealed. The matter is scheduled to be heard by the Constitutional Court on August 24.
Bagraim says: “The minister has nowhere to turn … The government is bankrupt, that’s the bottom line; it doesn’t matter whose fault it is at this moment.” It will boil down to “who gets public support”.
With official unemployment at 32.5% in the fourth quarter, according to Stats SA, it’s hard to see much public sympathy for the unions.
University of Johannesburg political analyst Prof Mcebisi Ndletyana tells the FM that by calling for public input Mchunu is anticipating a strike.
Cosatu chief negotiator Mugwena Maluleke and PSA assistant general manager Reuben Maleka have said civil servants will embark on strike action to bring the public service to a halt if the government refuses to accede.
Ndletyana says public reaction
“influences the impact and duration” of any strike. “Mchunu is trying to win the public over even before any strike action gets under way. Or it could be that he wants to use public input as a bargaining chip to say: ‘Look, we have the public behind us.’”
There are signs that the public is buying into Mchunu’s gambit. His spokesperson, Kamogelo Mogotsi, says the department has received “quite a number of proposals from the general public … public servants, ordinary citizens and professionals. We will collate all the information and provide feedback.”
Outa appealed to unions to take a “rational stance”, given that the economy shrank 7% in 2020 due to the pandemic and led to the loss of more than 1.4-million jobs.
“Unions should also consider the fact that the repeated aboveinflation increases of the past should not have happened in the first place and the current position by the state is called for,” says Duvenage. “This is the time for nation-building and for the unions to cease with their tiresome tactics of unacceptably high demands in the hope of settling at somewhere around CPI. [The] state’s wage bill is simply too high and the taxpaying public is overburdened.”
Meanwhile, the National Education Health & Allied Workers’
Union (Nehawu), Cosatu’s biggest union, has upped the ante, saying “a war” is unavoidable and the two sides are about to “butt heads”.
Nehawu general secretary Zola Saphetha says Mchunu’s call for public input is a “little stunt”.
“Government have proved … they have no appetite to resolve the current impasse amicably and Nehawu believes our solution is to mobilise for a full-blown strike which will render the government ungovernable and unfortunately pause all service delivery in the public service,” Saphetha says.