Public sector wage talks teeter
Government and unions in ‘do or die’ bid to find deal
THE government and unions will meet tomorrow in an effort to break the logjam in public sector wage talks.
Participants have described the talks as a “do or die” effort to find a deal before the end of this month.
Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene and Public Service and Administration Minister Collins Chabane are due to meet Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini and the leader of negotiations for the Cosatu bloc at the council, South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) general secretary Mugwena Maluleke.
Themeeting is meant to try to rescue the talks from the brink of collapse after public sector unions affiliated to Cosatu threatened to act “decisively” in view of the government’s adjustment of its offer of 5.8 percent to 4.8 percent in line with the new projected consumer price inflation figures.
Sadtu, National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), Police and Prisons Union (Popcru), nursing union Denosa, the SA Medical Association (Sama), State and Allied Workers Union (Sasawu) and Public and Allied Workers Union (Pawusa) have accused the government of negotiating in bad faith.
Department of Public Service and Administration spokesman Brent Simons has disputed the allegation, saying the government had not revised any of its conditions tabled at the council.
“Unions are fully aware that the government’s offer is directly related to the CPI and an additional agreed percentage point/s,” he added.
Labour unions in the council, including the Independent Labour Caucus, have – despite the lowering of the government’s offer – dropped their own wage demand to 10 percent, moving five points down. However, Independent Media understands that the ministers will try to convince unions to drop the figure even further in line with a Cabinet-approved wage proposal.
Sources from both sides, who did not want to be identified, said parties would probably end up agreeing on 7 or 7.5 percent increases.
Last month Minister Nene said the government had budgeted a cost-of-living salary increase of 6.6 percent for its employees.
In October, Denosa berated the minister for saying that any settlement more than one percent above inflation would compromise the head count.
Nene is reported to have made the remarks at a World Bank-IMF meeting.
The union warned the minister would infuriate workers who relied on the negotiations to find common ground that would improve their earnings.
Workers in all sectors have had to grapple with an increased cost of living and this is likely to motivate a push for what labour considers an acceptable offer.
Other demands made by workers have not been as contentious as the wage increase. Medical aid subsidy adjustments were discussed and an understanding was reached, allowing a 17.6 percent increase in contributions.
An in-principle agreement was also arrived at on the payment of 13th cheques or service bonuses.
In the past, government employees received their bonuses in their birthday months.
The new agreement, if signed, will leave this to the workers’ discretion.
Another headache for negotiators is the duration of agreements. The government wants to implement the new agreement over three years while labour demands only one year.
This demand is typically influenced by how much money the government is willing to put on the table.
Another irritant to labour has been the large number of outstanding agreements which the government has failed to implement over the years.
A parallel process has since been established in the 2015/16 to 2017/18 talks to deal with the issues, some of which date back to 2007.
These include the minimum service level agreement for the public service, a review of the impact of outsourcing in the public service and the government employees’ housing scheme.
Parties at the council have said progress has been made on these.
Outside of the bread-and butter-issues are murmurs about the possibility of a politically driven wide-scale strike should the government not meet the unions half way.
It is understood that the Cosatu Joint Mandating Committee resolved at a meeting with its negotiators to give the government a March 15 deadline, failing which a dispute would be declared. This usually ends with a strike.
There’s strong competition for public service members between old and new unions.
A number of splinter organisations have arisen as a result of the challenges at present troubling Cosatu.
In the light of this, it would be crucial for the federation to retain its current members by showing dividends in the form of a high wage increase.
A three-day Cosatu central executive committee meeting held this week decided the federation would embark on campaigns and programmes, including one in solidarity with the workers involved in public sector negotiations.
Meanwhile, government insiders also involved in the negotiations said they saw very little prospects of an agreement being reached soon.