COSATU Public Service Unions Statement

01 April 2015

The COSATU Public Service unions, representing approximately 58% of public service employees in the education, health, safety and security  which render the country's essential services, are appalled and infuriated by the reckless and arrogant attitude of government in dealing with this year's wage negotiations at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC).

The long and protracted wage negotiations have reached a deadlock with the employer declaring a dispute last week after wasting five months engaging in dramatics and acts of brinksmanship.

This means that currently an independent facilitator will be required to assist the parties to reach an agreement.

 In light of the present increases in the prices of food, medical costs, housing, electricity and fuel, we initially presented a 15% salary adjustment demand, plus  a R3000.00 housing allowance and a 28% increase for Medical Aid to cover losses of the past four years.

We also demanded a 6 months maternity leave and 2 weeks paternity leave. Our demands essentially were aimed at ensuring that workers are not the ones, who are hardest hit by our volatile and unpredictable economy.

Before the negotiations began at the PSCBC ,all the parties agreed that the base from which the negotiations will start for this round will be 5,8%, based on the year-on-year CPI of the 2013/14 Financial Year.

Despite that understanding we had in September, two months later in November, the employer tabled their opening bid at 5%, which went against the spirit of the pre-negotiations processes.

This was the first sign that the employer was not taking seriously these negotiations and did not respect the agreed timeframes and deadlines.

We duly rejected that offer on the basis that the employer was reneging on the undertaking of the pre-negotiations process.

They later came back with a proposal of 5, 8% salary increase across the board  for this year, with an inflation related adjustment over the next two outer years, {2016 and 2017}.On government employees housing scheme they offered a housing allowance within the scheme of R1400- R1000 on sliding scale.

They also offered 17, 6 % adjustment on the employer's medical aid contribution to cover for the losses of the last three {3} years, where there was no increase on medical aid subsidy.

We dully responded by revising our demands down from the previous submissions as an attempt of accommodating the employer's economic objections and also to try and bring a sense of urgency to the negotiations process.

We revised our wage demands from 15% to 10% which represented a 5% reduction on our part.

We reduced the housing allowance demand by 50% from R3000 to R1500.

They stunned us by revising their offer downwards to 5% from the initial 5, 8% claiming that it was a projected average CPI for the 2015/16 financial year.

They also proposed the housing allowance to R1500 for only those who are servicing housing bonds or loans towards primary residence.

It is important to note that this was after the workers had reduced their wage demands by 5%.This was an obvious act of provocation and clearly demonstrated that the employer was not willing to conclude these negotiations amicably.

Despite all this aggravation and duplicity from the employer, our unions declared that they were available 24 hours 7 days a week to negotiate and reach an agreement with government.

On the 25th March 2015, we went back to the wage negotiations to continue the engagements in trying to improve the existing offer.

After deliberations the employer revised the offer, which they called their last offer.

They tabled a 4.8% plus 1% which took us back to the original 5.8% which was withdrawn earlier. They still insisted on a multi-term based in inflation plus 0.5% for the next 2 years. Government acceded to the labour's demand of 28.5% increase on the medical aid subsidy.

On housing allowance the employer is now offering R1100 across the board for all eligible employees irrespective of whether they are paying a bond, renting or staying in a communal land.

The clause that people will forfeit the allowance at some point has been removed.

This represents a lousy R200.00 increase at a time when almost 70% of our members are unable to access housing bonds.

The employer proposed that if the parties do not agree on the current offer on the table, they should consider entering into voluntary mediation. We sent our negotiators back to further engage because on the salary adjustment and Housing Allowance we are still far apart as our demands remain 10% salary adjustment and R1500 housing allowance.

On the 27th March 2015 our negotiators went back to continue negotiations but the employer negotiators indicated that they cannot engage further as they have exhausted their mandate with the offer on the table. They insisted that we consider the mediation process they had suggested earlier.

We requested to come back on Monday the 30th March to respond to the proposed process.

To our surprise the employer negotiators decided to immediately declare a dispute two {2} days before the expiry of the last agreement, refusing our negotiators an opportunity to go and get a mandate on their proposal.

This act from the side of state negotiators is unprecedented just the like the withdrawal of the initial offer that was on the table.

In terms of the constitution of the PSCBC a dispute of this nature must be conciliated within 30 days and if there is no resolution, parties can exercise their rights.

Currently the employer has taken an unprecedented step of undermining not only the unions, but the PSCBC processes themselves.

They are circulating a propaganda document full of lies, half-truths and distortions to try and confuse our members into believing that they have spent more than 5.8% on these negotiations.

They do this by conflating salary percentage with housing, and all other issues. This is a deliberate attempt to undermine the unions and create an atmosphere of confusion in the ranks of our members.

What is obvious from all this is that we are dealing with some unprecedented levels of provocation and intransigence from the employer.

This has made it clear for us that we might have to mobilise the workers for a possible mass action in the public service. 

Starting from today, we are deploying all of our leadership structures on the ground to report back on the latest developments. We shall be convening workplace meetings, joint town-based meetings to ensure that we allow the worker to decide on the way forward.

As working class organisations, we have an appreciation of the impact the strikes have on the public and on service delivery.

We know this because we part of the working class: our kids go to public schools, and our families use public facilities.

But we also know that we lose the rights we do not defend.

While we are hopeful that the conciliation process will manage to provide us with the solution to this impasse, we are aware that the employer has treated these negotiations with an un-presented level of disdain and arrogance.

Statement issued by Sizwe Pamla, NEHAWU Media Officer, Sibongiseni Delihlazo, DENOSA Communications Manager and Nomusa Cembi, SADTU Media Officer, on behalf of the COSATU public service unions, April 1 2015

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