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- Cosatu has returned to its 10% across-the-board demand at the deadlocked public service wage talks.
- This follows the PSA serving the government with seven-day notice of a strike.
- Cosatu will head to conciliation at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council next week.
- For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.
Cosatu has returned to demanding a 10% increase in the public service wage talks after acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi said he would invoke section 5 of the Public Service Act to apply a 3% hike unilaterally.
The return to the steep demand also comes after the Public Service Association (PSA) served the government with a seven-day notice of intention to strike after the public service wage talks remained deadlocked at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC).
While the government has offered 3%, most unions' demands at the negotiations range between 5% and 10%. The South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu) is, so far, the only union to accept the 3% wage offer. Cosatu will now head to conciliation with the government at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council next week.
READ | Public sector wage crisis: Govt appeals to CCMA, as union prepares to strike
Nxesi has pushed to implement a 3% wage hike unilaterally in terms of Section 5 of the Public Service Act ahead of Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana's Medium-term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday, which is expected to accommodate a 3% increase to public service wages in the medium-term expenditure framework.
The ANC-aligned labour federation said the government allowed a draft resolution to fall away in the negotiations earlier this month. Cosatu said in a statement that the government had the option to reopen the matter for discussion or negotiation, but chose otherwise.
"With the offer having been withdrawn, we have now gone back to our initial demand of 10% across the board on the cost-of-living adjustment and invoked the PSCBC dispute-resolution mechanism," the statement said.
Cosatu said the employer's plan to implement the offer unilaterally, despite previously withdrawing it from the PSCBC, was "deceitful".
"The collective spirit of public sector workers has always been shuffled by the blatant disregard and the continued undermining of collective bargaining by government," Cosatu said.
Cosatu said the public service sector continued to suffer due to vacant posts and an effective "wage freeze" for public servants in the name of fiscal consolidation.
"The employer reiterated that the only provision is as per the budget amount and there seems to be no intention to find the additional budget to meet the demands of workers as presented," the statement said.
READ | Teachers union breaks ranks, says it will accept govt's 3% wage offer
The federation said it has declared a dispute regarding plans to implement the 3% hike. The conciliation for this dispute is scheduled for 31 October and 1 November at the PSCBC.
Cosatu said it would also roll out a plan of action, including special provincial mobilised rallies for better remunerations in the public service.
When the PSA strike commences the strike will be the union's first industrial action in the public service since July 2010, when the union successfully demanded an 8.6% wage increase.
Meanwhile, Public Service and Administration director-general Yoliswa Makhasi wrote to the director of the CCMA, Cameron Mogajane, on Friday, asking that it urgently intervene to break the deadlock at the public service wage talks.
