COSATU public sector unions annoyed by endless delaying tactics of employer at negotiations
4 April 2018
The public sector unions under COSATU at the Public Sector Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), namely DENOSA, NEHAWU, PAWUSA, POPCRU, SADTU and SAMA Trade Union, are fed up with the endless delaying tactics played by the employer at the wage negotiations that are currently under way at PSCBC, which should have been concluded already before the new financial year kicked in on 1 April 2018.
As a result, there are workers who are getting paid on 15 April and are likely not to be paid the adjusted salary for this financial year, as the deadline for the loading of their payment is tomorrow, if no agreement is reached at tomorrow’s scheduled salary negotiations.
A number of meetings aimed at concluding the negotiations have had to be postponed by the employer a number of times already, without any valid reasons for such postponements.
What is more sickening to COSATU unions is that the next round of negotiations are set for the 4th and 5th of April 2018 (Wednesday and Thursday), and our fear is that these two meetings may be postponed too because it has become a normal tactic of the employer representatives.
“The employer targeted the negotiation date to start on 4 April with full knowledge that the 4th of April is the D-day for programming and loading of payment for employees who get paid on the 15th of April and those who get paid end of the month in government,” says Mugwena Maluleke, the convener of COSATU unions at the PSCBC.
“We are warning the employer, under the leadership of the minister, on two things:
- Once the meeting tomorrow passes without any agreement, we will be left with no other option but to go back to our members immediately for consultation for a possible shut down of the public service.
- The offer both parties should be seeing at the meeting table tomorrow should be the offer that we put as workers after we had consulted with our members, or else hell will break loose because we are aware that there is a plan to provoke workers and break these negotiations and cause instability as a further delaying tactic. One such plan that has come to our attention is the placement of one Kenny Govender, who is known to be an arrogant being and an anarchist as he takes pleasure when workers go to strike, to lead negotiations on behalf of government.”
Workers are already edgy and anxious, and justifiably so, about the pointlessness and prolonged fate of these negotiations which have not been moving an inch forward. Already, workers are confronted by skyrocketing price increases of consumer goods as a result of the VAT increase to 15% which had been unilaterally introduced by Treasury and implemented on 1 April already. As if that is not enough, fuel prices will go up as of the early morning tomorrow, which will further squeeze and dry up workers’ disposable income.
The delaying tactics by the employer have become sickening and childish to say the least, and they do not reflect positively on the leadership under the new minister at Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), Minister Ayanda Dlodlo.
Issued by Mugwena Maluleke on behalf of COSATU public sector unions, 4 April 2018
