Unionised Civil Servants Reject Final Wage Offer

by Oct 13, 2010All Articles

public sector strikeBy Samantha Enslin-Payne – 13 October 2010

Government deal unsigned, labour leaders to seek new mandates today.
The government’s final wage offer to civil servants was not signed by the deadline yesterday as a majority could not be secured among the 19 public service unions.  Chris Klopper, the chairman of the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC), said last night there was no mandate to sign and so it was decided that unions would go back to members today for a fresh mandate.

Cosatu’s joint mandating committee, which represents eight public sector unions, and the ILC, which represents 11 unions, will meet late today to take stock.

Klopper said what the union members who opted not to sign did not seem to understand was that if the wage agreement was not signed by a majority the employer had no imperative to implement the deal, including the 7.5 percent wage increase.

Dumisani Nkwamba, the spokesman for Minister of Public Service and Administration Richard Baloyi, said earlier yesterday that the minister remained confident a 50.1 percent majority would be achieved to enable the government to implement the settlement offer.

Sizwe Pamla, the spokesman for the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), said all Cosatu public service unions, barring the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), intended to sign. But without Sadtu there was no majority.

Likewise, in terms of the ILC unions, Hospersa and the Public Servants Association (PSA) will not sign, meaning the ILC does not have a majority. Hospersa and the PSA represent 280 000 of the ILC’s 460 000 members.
Noel Desfontaines, the general secretary of Hospersa, said that the union would not sign as members were not prepared to settle for less than their demands after being on strike and losing pay.

The government signed the agreement last month after unions suspended the 20-day strike to consider the final offer that provided state employees a 7.5 percent wage increase and a housing allowance of R800 a month.

When negotiations began in April, unions demanded an 11 percent wage increase and a R1 650 monthly housing allowance. This was later revised down to an 8.6 percent salary increase and a R1 000 housing allowance. Unions had until yesterday to sign.

But Sadtu spokeswoman Nomusa Cembi said earlier this week: “We are not signing as we could not get a mandate to do so.”

Sadtu has formally called off the strike, which public service unions suspended on September 6.

“The government can go ahead and implement, but we have registered our unhappiness. The government does not have our blessing,” Cembi said.

Manie de Clercq, the deputy general manager of the PSA, said: “We are not going to be signing. Our members have not agreed to the offer.”

But Nehawu’s Pamla said of the need for unions to rethink their stance: “The wage deal is not what we wanted but we need to open a new chapter”, referring to the need to start wage negotiations for next year.

Source: http://www.busrep.co.za/

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