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Unions accuse the state Shaun Mpshe, The New Age, Johannesburg, 10 March 2015 National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (NPTOSA) has joined a long line of Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) affiliated unions accusing the state of negotiating in bad faith in the recent public sector salary negotiations. The union's president and chairperson of the Independent Labour Caucus (ILC), Basil Manuel said he cannot recall such bad faith bargaining in the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in previous negotiations. "On the very day that Labour tables a revised demand of 10% - down from the original 15% - the Employer informs the unions that its offer of 5.8% has now been reduced to 4.8%," Manuel said. This comes after the government, subsequent to the 2015 budget speech by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene on February 25, revised its offer to 4.8% in line with the new projected CPI figures. Manuel said that, should the government fail to return to the bargaining table and introduce a better offer, it will only escalate the problem. "The union has put the demand, the state must now respond to the demand, if it does not come with a credible offer, it of course escalates the problem into a situation where now we say we're deadlocked and we don't want to get to that stage." "We as the union in the ILC are prepared to negotiate and we don't want the state to misuse our good nature and our good intentions. The State as the employer is not playing a good game. There are seemingly attempting to create a crisis," Manuel said. However, after last week's negotiations, the department of public service and administration, through its spokesperson, Brent Simons disputed the allegations. "Unions are 100% aware that Government's offer is directly related to the CPI and an additional agreed percentage point/s," he said. Nevertheless, the unions including South African Democratic Teachers' Union (SADTU), National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU), Police and Prisons union (POPCRU), nursing union DENOSA, the SA Medical Association (SAMA), State and Allied Workers' Union (SASAWU) and Public and Allied Workers' Union (PAWUSA) maintained their position and demand for a better offer. All parties will want to avoid the incidents of 2010 were public servant downed tool, and began a strike which culminated into violence lasting about three weeks. The workers eventually settled for an increase of 7.5% and an increase in housing allowance which is expected to be the benchmark for these negotiations. [email protected] From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/ -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
