COSATU warns government against provoking public service employees at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council
5 April 2018
The Congress of South African Trade Unions has noted with deep concern the government’s failure to take the public service wage negotiations seriously. There is an inadequate offer on the table that has been presented by government and we expect government to increase that offer. The failure by government to take seriously these negotiations at a time when workers are already victims of an increase of VAT and the Fuel Levy will feed the already rising tensions.
We caution government against creating an environment that will force workers to consider withdrawing their labour and embark on what will be a calamitous strike. The consequences of such a strike will reverberate all the way to 2019 and the resultant resentment will muddy the political waters with dire consequences.
The last time that the public service workers went on strike in 2010, the strike lasted more than a month and the economy hemorrhaged billions of rands, as a result. Workers across the board are united and if we are forced into a public sector strike, they will shut down this country especially since workers are still reeling from a very a hostile budget.
We have noted the attempts by lobby groups and some media institutions to try and pile pressure on government to deal with what they call the “monster” that is the public service wage bill.Unfortunately, organisations like the Institute of Race Relations tend to focus on the lower levels in the public service hierarchy rather than the bloated managerial or executive levels, when they talk about the wage bill.