JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - One of South Africa's largest state workers' unions said on Wednesday it had rejected a new pay offer from the government aimed at ending a three-week strike by about 1.3 million workers in Africa's largest economy.
Shortly after NEHAWU, which has more than 200,000 members in healthcare and other services, made the announcement, a coalition of more than a dozen state workers' unions began talks on whether to accept the offer. Union officials said there was no early consensus.
"NEHAWU has rejected the offer," Sizwe Pamla, a NEHAWU spokesman, told Reuters. The country's biggest union for state workers, the teachers' group SADTU, has also indicated its members have rejected the offer.
The two unions, totalling about half a million members, are in the country's largest federation, COSATU, and are seen as having a major influence on the way other COSATU unions vote.
Government officials, who have said they are optimistic a deal will be reached soon, would not comment on NEHAWU's decision.
The strike has ended the national euphoria over hosting the June-July football World Cup, local media said, as it has shut schools, led to bodies piling up at state morgues and dampened investor sentiment.
Just before the NEHAWU announcement, COSATU said it was suspending a one-day sympathy strike this week by all its member unions that could have shut mines, to give state workers more time to consider the new wage offer.
That removes some of the pressure on President Jacob Zuma's ruling African National Congress to reach a deal fast or risk a massive labour action that could damage the economy.
The government may be hard pressed to improve its offer significantly, as it has said its latest offer is well above inflation -- 3.7 percent in July -- and it cannot afford what it has already put on the table.
This could leave union leaders with a dilemma -- whether to try to persuade members to accept the offer or to press ahead with a long strike that leaves strikers without pay in pursuit of a deal that further strains state finances.
COSATU has more than 20 affiliated unions and claims nearly 2 million members.
The government offered state workers, including teachers, nurses, customs officials and office clerks, a pay rise of 7.5 percent and 800 rand ($108.5) a month for housing. The unions are demanding an 8.6 percent rise and 1,000 rand a month.
The COSATU leadership, which said its alliance with the ANC was on the verge of rupture, appears to have taken a more conciliatory line since Zuma heeded its call for high-level intervention and ordered ministers to negotiate a rapid end to the strike, analysts said.
"They are turning the taps off a little, but are doing it slowly," said Sakhela Buhlungu, an expert on organised labour at the University of Johannesburg.
COSATU has threatened a prolonged strike by all its members, including miners and factory workers, which would cripple the economy, if there is no resolution of the state workers' strike.
South Africa is the world's fourth largest gold producer and largest platinum producer. The country's biggest firms, such as Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum and Harmony Gold Mining, have stockpiles of ore and would not be seriously affected by a one-day work stoppage.
In yet another dispute in the mid-year strike season, the National Union of Mineworkers said more than 8,000 workers at Northam Platinum would strike on Monday in a pay dispute.
Officials have said the government will probably be forced to make cuts elsewhere and borrow funds to pay for the state workers' eventual pay rise, making it more difficult to meet its goal of cutting a deficit of 6.7 percent of GDP. (Editing by Marius Bosch and Tim Pearce)
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