Public sector: we need to think outside the pay packet

Public service & administration minister Senzo Mchunu must be heaving a sigh of relief that, even though yesterday was Workers’ Day, he did not have to physically attend any mass rally organised by his party’s alliance partner Cosatu. The man who narrowly lost out to Ace Magashule for the post of ANC secretary-general at the party’s 2017 national conference has become unpopular with the very unions who partially funded the #CR17 ticket he ran on.

There was great excitement among public sector unions, at least among those that are affiliated to Cosatu, when President Cyril Ramaphosa appointed Mchunu to the portfolio. He had been one of Ramaphosa’s more prominent political campaigners when he ran for office and so the unions believed he had the president’s ear.

But in practice, things have not gone the way they thought they would. On his watch, the public service & administration department reneged on the last year of a three-year deal to raise civil service salaries, on the grounds that the government has no money.

The relationship between the unions and the minister deteriorated even further this week when wage talks between Mchunu and public sector unions deadlocked. The minister seemed to have fuelled the fire when, after it became clear that there was an impasse, he made an unprecedented call for the public to help resolve the dispute by coming up with suggestions on what needs to be done.

The unions saw this as an attempt to turn the public against organised labour. In just a matter of months, Mchunu has turned from the darling of Cosatu unions into a despised politician, probably even more detested than the alleged face of neo-liberalism, Tito Mboweni.

Some of the unions are even starting to say he should be removed from his post, a move he’ll probably appreciate as it has long been rumoured in ANC circles that he may be destined for the quieter but more powerful state security portfolio.

But even if there was to be a change of minister, the issues for both the unions and the government will remain the same. Therefore, further conflict is inevitable.

Given the state of the national fiscus, on the one hand, and public sector workers’ frustration over the government’s failure to put an acceptable increment offer on the table, SA is headed for a civil service strike. More labour unrest is likely to follow once the government starts looking at cutting jobs in a bid to reduce its huge budget deficit.

But beyond the current dispute and the coming strike action, leaders on both sides of the divide need to start thinking about a more sustainable solution to the problems confronting this sector.

Instead of a relationship that is dependent on whether a minister is liked by trade unions or not, the ANC — as the country’s dominant political party — and Cosatu, as the home of the largest public sector unions, should be initiating a process towards an all-inclusive public service pact.

This should go beyond collective bargaining issues relating to remuneration, but should include agreements on the size and structure of the civil service — given the country’s service delivery needs as well as its financial realities. It is through such a pact that the government and organised labour, as well as other stakeholders, can reach agreement on which skills are urgently needed where and which positions need to be repurposed.

Without such a pact, not only is instability in the public sector likely to be a common feature on an annual basis, but thousands of jobs will be threatened. Surely neither unions nor the state want the situation to reach SA Airways or Denel levels — where the employer is no longer able to guarantee salaries to its employees — before they start talking about finding lasting solutions.

Cosatu and the ANC are best placed to initiate the process because they are already alliance partners with similar political goals, but the process should be all inclusive and non-partisan.

In talks about such a pact, all parties would have to be prepared to make sacrifices for the greater good and survival of the public service. But the government will have to lead the way in this regard. It cannot continue calling on nurses and teachers to make sacrifices while its senior officials and politicians live large. No pact can be successfully agreed to if one party, to use Zwelinzima Vavi’s analogy, feels like a pig being asked to sacrifice its life for bacon while the other party is treated like a hen, asked only for an egg.