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Public servants to march to the Treasury Karl Gernetzky and Linda Ensor, Business Day, Johannesburg, 17 April 2015 As the state digs in its heels over the public-sector wage bill, Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU) affiliates will march to the Treasury next week to put pressure on the government when more conciliation efforts take place later this month. More arbitration between the state and about 1.3-million public servants will take place on the last three days of this month, and unions said on Thursday three days of conciliation had failed to bring the parties closer to a settlement. The National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union general-secretary, Bereng Soke said that the march would represent "the first step for us to take our battle to the streets". After seven months of negotiations, unions have not changed their position on a 10% wage hike and improvements to public employees' housing allowance. The state has offered to increase salaries by inflation plus-1% this year, followed by two years of real inflation-adjusted increases of 0.5%. The unions wanted to pressure senior officials to either give a sufficient mandate to negotiators or attend the next meetings themselves to present more acceptable terms, said Mr Soke. Organised labour is disgruntled with the way the state has handled negotiations. It has also repeatedly decried state negotiators' limited mandates, saying the state is attempting to "provoke labour". Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said on Thursday a 10% wage increase would add R20bn to the government's remuneration bill, which is more than the amount provided for in the 2015-16 budget. Mr Nene was replying to a question posed by Democratic Alliance finance spokesman Dion George. The finance minister said there was limited scope to provide more resources for salaries over the next three years "given the current economic constraint, coupled with high government debt". "Any departure from the path of consumer price index-linked cost-of-living adjustments cannot be financed through debt issuance and will therefore require a reallocation of resources from other spending areas." The state's wage bill stands at about 35.5% of noninterest spending, and is expected to rise to R437bn this year. The unions, however, maintain that the state has accused the Treasury of "selective voluntary austerity measures". Should this round of talks fail, COSATU unions would strike, Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union deputy president Nkosinathi Mabhida said. COSATU leaders rejected further concessions made by the state with regard to paternity and maternity leave, saying the core issues remained housing and wages. Independent Labour Caucus chief negotiator Basil Manuel said the unions had stood their ground on a R1,500 housing allowance pending further post-settlement discussions on a comprehensive housing policy. There had been "hardly any movement" from the state during conciliation, and the unions would continue to consult members, said Mr Manuel. The Public Servants' Association's Leon Gilbert said though conciliation had moved slowly, both parties had demonstrated willingness to make concessions. There was still time "to find each other and thrash out the last few issues in dispute." The Department of Public Service and Administration on Thursday said it was optimistic a settlement would be reached this month. "The employer believes that the current offer is fair and reasonable and takes into account the current economic situation of our country whilst sufficiently cushioning the salaries of public service employees from the effects of inflation," the statement read. From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2015/04/17/public-servants-to-march- to-the-treasury -- -- 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.
