The National Education and Health Workers Union (Nehawu) is one of a minority of unions still holding out for the original demand of an 8% wage increase.
If most of the unions – and the government, which has put 7% on the table – each concede by 0.5% at the next meeting of the Public Sector Coordinating Bargaining Chamber (PSCBC), the contentious public sector wage negotiations could be settled shortly.
The government’s offer is 7%, while an alliance of unions forming the majority in the chamber – those affiliated to the Federation of Trade Unions of SA (Fedusa) and the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) – have moved down to 8%. The unions are expecting the government to make a new offer and appear ready to reciprocate, reports News24.
At a meeting of the PSCBC last Thursday, the majority of unions demanded that the government respond to their 8% demand at a scheduled meeting on Friday. The majority also insisted that the settlement could not be revisited.
The minority group of unions includes some of the biggest in the public sector, like Nehawu, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) and the SA Police Union (SAPU).
The strike settlement, which was reached a week ago, on Wednesday, did not improve on the state’s original 3% offer for 2022/23.
But it did include an ambiguous undertaking to allow unions to raise historic matters during the 2023/24 talks.
After Thursday’s meeting of the PSCBC, it appears unlikely that the 2022/23 settlement will be revisited.
This means the minority group will lose heavily. Not only did they fail to win an additional wage increase through their strike, but they will also be denied the opportunity for a second bite at the cherry on the 2022/23 agreement.
The 7% offered by the government is well above the 1.5% average wage growth that the National Treasury has pencilled into the budget.
The higher-than-expected wage increase has begun to fuel fear among economists that government’s fiscal consolidation plans could be in jeopardy.
The implication of this would be that some of the non-critical posts in the public service would not be filled.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Hospitals and patients bear the brunt of disruptive Nehawu strike
Court forbids Nehawu’s national strike on pain of SAPS intervention
Nehawu threatens nationwide strike and at National Health Labs
Nehawu threatens national strike over lack of PPE