State hasn’t bowed to wage demands – the cupboard is still bare
18 May 2021
Despite some headlines claiming the Government has caved in to union demands for inflation-busting salary increases for all 13 million State employees, a closer reading tells a different story, reaffirming that the cupboard is bare.
The latest pay offer, despite offering a monthly bonus of R 978 to each public servant and a once-off salary adjustment of 1.5% that, in the manner of civil service employment, is an increase everyone gets by simply turning up every day, rubs it in that the cupboard is bare.
Naturally, the howl of outrage from the unions and their members who believe in money trees that bear fruit in all seasons has already begun. One can understand how the lower paid remain aggrieved at having to face economic realities they may barely understand, but the union leaders should know better.
That trade union pay negotiators with government should continue to believe they are dealing with wealth creators as in the private sector raises the suspicion that their militancy has more to do with falling union dues and union membership than anything else.