CAPE TOWN: Public service unions said on Friday they will not participate in any national or provincial bargaining council until a dispute with the state over a 0.6% wage claw-back in last month’s wage agreement is resolved.
No discussions with the government on any substantive issue will take place until public servants receive their 7% wage increase for this year, an issue which was receiving priority, Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) first deputy president Letsatsi Modise said on Friday.
The agreement was “anchored” upon the 7% wage hike and without it “we do not have the basis of a multi-term agreement,” said Mr Modise at a joint briefing of both independent and Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) aligned public sector unions.
The unions said on Friday they will not participate in any council, such as the Education Labour Relations Council, to discuss any substantive issue. Unions will be consulting their members on how to respond with further action, National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) first-deputy president Michael Shingange said on Friday.
The wage agreement reached last month was welcomed for averting strike action that could have crippled hospitals, shut schools and affected basic services. The state has however made clear the additional R66bn cost of the deal will all but wipe out the Treasury’s contingency reserves and will likely require freezing the size of the public service. The three-year agreement would have seen 1.3-million public servants receive a 7% increase this year, followed by consumer price inflation plus 1% in subsequent years.
