PSA slams govt’s ‘stalling tactics’ ahead of public sector wage battle
The Public Servants Association (PSA) has slammed government for dragging its feet in the public service wage dispute.
The public sector union is expected to appear at the Labour Court on Wednesday in its battle with government over its failure to implement a 2018 wage agreement.
But the Department of Public Services and Administration called a meeting on Sunday with the union, proposing a new settlement.
PSA’s Reuben Maleka believes government is trying to stall ahead of Wednesday’s court appearance.
“The Minister (of Public Service Senzo Mchunu) then proposed a settlement to resolve the non-implementation of clause 3.3 of the Resolution. The proposal entails a pension-based approach whereby the employer’s contribution to employees’ pension, amounting to R27 billion, will be utilised to provide employees with a once-off bonus.
“In a nutshell what it’s saying is that in the month of December, the employees of public service would be paid with employers pension contribution. They are saying instead of the worker making contribution to GPF, they’ll take that money and give our members a once-off bonus and we rejected that,” says Maleka.
ALSO READ:
SABC given Monday deadline to drop redundancy letters
The SABC has suspended the retrenchment process, set to affect some 400 staffers, to the end of December. But labour unions want the public broadcaster to do completely do away with the process. CWU general-secretary Aubrey Tshabalala says the broadcaster has until Monday to withdraw the retrenchment letters.
The PSA has called for the department to take the matter up with its lawyers.
“We said to the minister that if there’s any settlement that he believes can be acceptable they can put that on record with our attorneys and our attorneys can consider it based on already what has been presented or in our court papers.
“I’m sure they will consult us and we can be able to say whether it’s a reasonable settlement or is in line with the resolution as we contemplated in the court papers but so far we can see that it’s just playing games,” Maleka adds.
Maleka says the case is no longer just about public service wages but also about protecting collective bargaining.
“We can’t allow such things to happen so that collective bargaining can be undermined.”
The issue of the public service wage bill remains a contentious issue, diving labour and government.
Government says it cannot afford to foot the bill but labour wants government to uphold their end of the deal.
