Cosatu, Saftu ready to go on strike, but major union PSA won’t join

Public service unions appear divided about going on strike as major union, the Public Servants Association (PSA), withdraws from the 2022/2023 pay talks and readies for the next round of negotiations.

At a press briefing on Thursday, unions under the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said they plan to serve the Department of Public Service and Administration with a strike notice on 22 February. The briefing was without the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), which represents more than 20 unions.

Seven days after serving the strike notice, they will be eligible to fully withdraw their labour.

Read: Public sector workers to go on ‘full-blown indefinite strike’

The PSA, which represents more than 235 000 public sector employees and is affiliated with Fedusa, has said it will attend a special council meeting on Friday (17 February) to discuss wages for the 2023/24 financial year.

Speaking to Moneyweb, PSA chief labour relations officer Jannie Oosthuizen said while the union is not satisfied with the 3% offer that was unilaterally implemented last year, its members have already suffered financially from participating in strikes last year.

“The PSA is not participating in the strike; we are commencing with wage negotiations tomorrow.… The employer will present the economic outlook, and we will provide our economic outlook and our motivations and then take it from there,” he said.

He said the union’s main concern is the gratuity of R1 000 paid to workers that is due to expire at the end of March this year, saying the PSA will challenge it through the courts should it be stopped.

“We did obtain legal advice, and [they] indicated to us that it must continue. If the employer stops it, we will have recourse and we can approach the courts to enforce the agreement in the absence of a new agreement,” said Oosthuizen.

The agreement, signed in 2021, bars the employer from stopping the cash gratuity if there is not a new agreement.

Timing

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is facing renewed pressure from the unions who plan to issue notices to launch “indefinite full-blown” strike action the same day he is to deliver South Africa’s budget for the 2023/2024 financial year (Wednesday, 22 February).

Read: Public sector wage talks leave Ramaphosa in tight spot

Initially, Godongwana unilaterally tabled a 3% increase when delivering his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) speech in October. Later, Acting Public Service and Administration Minister Thulas Nxesi said a 7.5% offer was on the table, stating that the 3% was pensionable, and the 4.5% non-pensionable, and pertains to the R1 000 gratuity payment to workers.

With the talks effectively still deadlocked, the unions have said they are of the view that the employer is not interested in resolving the dispute, and plan to stage pickets outside the venues at which Godongwana and finance executive council members will present their budget speeches.

The prospect of intensified industrial action by workers comes as Godongwana will surely try to rein in government spending and reduce debt. The public service wage bill is also a point of contention, with Nxesi’s 7.5% offer already higher than the offer tabled in October.

Read: Govt ‘hikes’ wage offer to 7.5%, public wage bill may balloon to R700bn

Nxesi previously said his department would spend an additional R34 billion, based on the 7.5% increase, adding more pressure on the country’s already-strained fiscus.

Added to the R665 billion South Africa already pays in public employee compensation, the country’s new wage bill would touch almost R700 billion – closer to a level Godongwana projected would only be reached in 2025.

Labour analyst Mamokgethi Molopyane is of the view that the workers will not have their demand for a 10% salary increase met, given the current fundamentals of South Africa’s economy.

She explains that according to Godongwana’s MTBPS, it was important that as much as possible be saved, that austerity be enforced on government spending and that the wage bill be reduced. “I think that’s the theme of the year moving forward. But I anticipate that they [unions] may not get what they want. They’re going to make things difficult for the government.”

In a statement on Thursday evening, Nxesi lauded unions that have made the decision to continue with negotiations, while urging those who have not to return for negotiations.

“It is important that the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council processes and systems are capacitated and consolidated further, rather than being abandoned,” he said.