WENDY MOTHATA
THE South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has indicated that it’s willing to accept the government’s offer of a 3% wage increase in the public service wage talks. Sadtu said it will not join the public servants’ strike action and it will make an announcement on Monday on the matter when it concludes its national council meeting.
This despite a deadlock with other unions over wage negotiations with the government.
Last week, Sadtu president Magope Maphila said most members were in support of the revised offer of 3% tabled recently at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) by the department of public service and administration.
Sadtu has a membership of about 260,000.
Despite the prevailing difficult fiscal position, the government believes the 3% salary increase offer to
public servants is ‘generous’.
This is the view of the Acting Minister of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), Thulas Nxesi, and Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana.
The unions demanded a 10% wage increase when negotiations began in May but trimmed the figure down to 6.5% to match the headline inflation rate the Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022.
The government presented a revised and improved offer on the baseline of 2% plus the non-pensionable cash gratuity, amounting to an average of 4.5% of the R20.5 billion that is on the budget.
“The 2% amounted to an additional R8.9 billion over and above the budgeted of R20.5 billion, costing the government a total of R29.5 billion. Labour revised their demand to 6.5% across-the-board baseline increase, plus the non-pensionable cash gratuity,” Godongwana said.
“The employer further indicated that any further increase, above the 2% on the baseline, would require additional funding to be sourced from the Compensation of Employees’ budget and would require the introduction of cost containment measures in the Public Service,” said the Ministers.
While Sadtu has indicated that it may accept the offer, the same proposal has been rejected by other unions, including Nehawu, Denosa, Popcru, and the Public Servants Association.
The unions have since announced their plans to embark on industrial action unless the employer comes up with an improved offer.
Speaking on POWER Perspective on Wednesday, Sadtu spokesperson, Nomusa Cembi, said the majority of their members have accepted the government’s offer.
“Our members have decided to accept with reservation, the deal is nowhere near what we want. It is with heavy hearts that they accepted. Out of nine provinces, there are seven who have accepted and two did not accept. We operate on the process of democratic centralism, so we are going to accept. However, we have not signed.”
Some public service unions are on the verge of calling a national strike amid a wage dispute with the government.
Denosa has advised the members and structures of the union that the negotiations have reached the
dispute level.
“DENOSA and other COSATU unions filed for the joint dispute referral at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC). This application will invoke the conciliation process in PSCBC. This happened after COSATU unions in the public sector reported in a joint meeting held on October 6, 2022, that their members were rejecting the final offer of the employer,” Denosa said.
In the meantime, Denosa indicated that it will embark on a consultation process through its constitutional structures to unpack the current processes taking place at PSCBC and the possible end results.
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