The public sector trade unions have announced their plan to embark on a national strike following a wage impasse that they claim has not been resolved since last year.
Several unions in the public sector, including Denosa, Nehawu and Popcru, said they were gearing up for an indefinite strike this month. They unions are rejecting the government’s call for a return to talks before next week’s Budget speech by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana.
Presenting the position of Cosatu-affiliated unions in the Public Sector Bargaining Council, Simon Hlungwani, of the nursing union Denosa, said workers were tired of marches and protest action “so this is a full-blown strike to down tools and withdraw the labour force”.
Wage talks soured last year when at least seven public service unions failed to convince government to concede to their demand for a 10% wage increase.
During the impasse, three union federations – Cosatu, Saftu and Fedusa – gave government an ultimatum to honour a three-year wage deal or face a national shutdown.
After last year’s united front, some unions are said to have broken ranks and are likely to abandon their fight for the 2022 wages and go ahead with negotiations for 2023.
However, Hlungwane said the government had unilaterally implemented a wage increase, which had been roundly rejected by all unions in the Bargaining Council.
“We will not close our eyes and pretend there is no dispute that exists. The employer should have actually sat down with us and worked out the issues and maybe then we would have been able to compromise,” he said.
Hlungwani said there was no reason for them to return to the bargaining table on Friday, following an invitation by the government.
“We do believe there is nothing worthy of engagement unless they resolve the previous dispute. We are always open to discussions over that previous dispute. But we cannot go into negotiations for the 2023 wages when the 2022 wages have not been resolved,” he said.
Hlungwane said their view was that based on previous experiences, Friday’s meeting would amount to “nothing but a box-ticking exercise” in further justifying government’s tabled offer leading to the upcoming Budget speech.
“It is for this reason that we are withdrawing our participation in this frivolous process. We also in December 2022, received a response from the Acting Minister of DPSA on the memorandum that was handed over to the employer in October 2022,” said Hlungwani.
“Our negotiators are not going to participate in any activity of the PSBC until the dispute of 2022/23 is resolved. We have already started engaging our members to revive the mandate, mobilise and ballot for strike action,” he said.
Hlungwani said the notice of the strike action would be served on the government next Wednesday when Godongwana tables his much-anticipated Budget.
Current Affairs