Unions to down tools over 3% wage hike offer
IF YOU are looking to apply for a new identity document or passport or seeking recourse from the country’s courts of law from Thursday, you are likely to find yourself disappointed as a public servants’ strike is set to begin.
The stoppage, which has been mooted for weeks, comes as public servants take to the streets to voice disapproval over a 3% salary increase offer bythe government. The workers want 6.5%.
The Public Servants Association (PSA) union, which represents 235 000 public sector employees, gave notice of its intention to strike on Thursday, November 10, after rejecting what it referred to as a “meagre” offer. It will embark on what is set to be the biggest public service strike since 2010.
Most government departments, including Home Affairs, Justice and Constitutional Development, will involved. However, Reuben Maleka, national spokesperson for the PSA, said this strike would not include essential services, workers such as the police and nurses.
The PSA and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) said their members were set to go on strike across the country from Thursday as they fight for a better offer from the government.
Maleka said that initially the unions had demanded a 10% salary increase for their members when they began negotiations in May, but eventually lowered their demands to 6.5%.
“Each and every province has got their plans of running the strike because there are different municipalities from which we have obtained Gatherings Act permission, so you will find that Mthatha or Durban starts on different dates but the strike will start from the 10th of November,” Maleka said.
He said that they would be having intermittent action along the way, including pickets, until the government met their demands.
Maleka said that with the country’s inflation at 7.4%, the government’s offer of 3% amounted to nothing because fuel had increased by 45% for the year so far, food inflation was at 20%, and transportation had increased by 20%.
“All this tells us is that this 3% against all this inflation on average doesn’t make sense, and that’s why the members have asked us to go all out.
“Public servants have been paralysed by inflation and increases in the costs of fuel, food as well as interest rate hikes. Despite this, they are still expected to render services without receiving a pensionable salary increase for the past three years,” Maleka said.
He said the government’s offer to public servants, which included a once-off cash payment of R1 000, did not materially improve their income.
Saftu’s general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi said the government should withdraw its indication suggesting that workers were willing to accept its offer of 3%. This was similar to handing over peanuts to the workers, he said.
This week Finance Minister Mondli Gungubele said they did not want a strike, adding that the cost of the government’s wage bill was the government’s single biggest cost at the moment.
He said the crisis at power utility Eskom had been crippling the country’s economy despite efforts to fix the ailing power supply utility for the past 14 years.