Business Day
*Unions give state wage ultimatum* *Alistair Anderson and Natasha Marrian, Business Day, 5 June 2012 *AFTER four months of talks, public sector trade unions have given the state an ultimatum to better its wage offer or face possible labour action, including marches.
SA's high public sector wage bill has been highlighted as a concern by three of the world's major ratings agencies. Bruce Donald, head of rand strategy at Standard Bank , recently said the public sector wage negotiations would be closely monitored by investors and the main ratings agencies, all three of which have SA on a negative outlook.
The biggest public sector union, the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), which represents about 1,3-million workers, yesterday said although its wage demand had in the past month moved much closer to the government's offer, the movement was not substantial enough.
The parties also disagreed on benefits owed to workers. The state was offering 6,5%, while the unions, along with Nehawu, wanted 8%."The 6,5% revised offer as a result of the facilitation process fails to take into account the devastating effects of the increasing inflation on the workers' wages," said Nehawu spokesman Sizwe Pamla.
"Labour demands a revised offer not later than Wednesday, that takes into account the cost of living faced by the public workers who have to render quality public service to our people. Labour is available for 24 hours a day to negotiate on all the issues on the table."
Public sector strikes in 2007 and 2010 cost millions of rand in workdays lost and property damaged.
The unions were to meet government negotiators on Thursday.Meanwhile, wage talks at the local government level have yielded little, with unions and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) still far apart after two rounds of negotiation.
Strike action at local government level has often resulted in uncollected rubbish being strewn across the streets.
Negotiations between Salga, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) are set to continue into a third round next week.
The unions are demanding an 11,5% pay rise or R1750 --- whichever is greater --- adjusted from their initial demand of 15% or R2000.
Salga is offering a 4,5% rise.Samwu and Imatu also demand that many vacant posts in municipalities across SA be filled.
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