Archive for category: Media Statement

UPDATE ON PUBLIC SECTOR WAGE NEGOTIATIONS FROM FEDUSA-AFFILIATED TRADE UNIONS

14 March 2023

Trade Unions affiliated with the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) are happy to report back to members and the public that there have been significant strides made in the wage negotiations underway for the period 2023/2024. Earlier today (14/03/2023), the employer tabled a revised offer of an average 7% to organised labour which comprises the majority of unions in the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), despite the absence of those who elected to boycott the process.

 

Fedusa unions were clear at the onset of these negotiations that its members would not tolerate nor accept a wage increase which will not help offset the impact of the spiralling cost of living. The fact that the employer is near the inflation benchmark in the proposal that has been tabled has given us renewed faith in the power of collective bargaining.

 

These negotiations have continued while public servants suffered the ire of their communities as other unions elected to take part in detrimental industrial action over historical issues. While Fedusa affiliates in the sector acknowledge that the issues that led to the strike are critical, it would have been ideal that labour collaborates in its efforts to secure workers reasonable wage increases in council, the only place we believe negotiations can successfully be held.

 

Organised labour negotiators have been hard at work, pressing ahead with the members’ mandate of a 10 percent wage increase, among other demands. While further details of where the government stands on housing and medical aid among others will be shared in due course, labour has also in the spirit of peaceful and fruitful negotiations, made a compromise.

 

As such, unions in the chamber moved from the initial 10 percent demand to 8 percent, bringing the parties closer to one another. Fedusa’s posture has always been that our approach to the negotiations is in good faith, understanding that it’s a give-and-take process.

Labour’s initial demands included a single-year term agreement and an increase of R2500 monthly housing allowance. As matters stand, the employer has proposed a three-year term with CPI plus 0,5% in year 2 and CPI only in year 3.

 

Labour has rejected the proposed term of the agreement, however, placed it on record that workers are amenable to a 2-year term with the second-year increase set at CPI plus 1,5%.

Organised labour in the council expects that a follow-up meeting will be held soon, with the expectation that the employer will revert to the response tabled by unions.

 

We foresee that the negotiations will conclude before the end of the month, bringing hard-working public service employees much relief, instead of the norm where talks drag on for months while they suffer the consequences of shrinking salaries. In fact, we may witness a record turn-around time in public sector wage negotiations.

 

Fedusa affiliates: NAPTOSA, PSA, HOSPERSA, SAOU along with Cosatu-affiliated SADTU attended the council meeting today, constituting the majority of parties in the PSCBC, at 53,9%.

 

We also note that the minority group that chose to boycott the wage negotiations since the onset of the process attempted to sneak back into the chamber today to present their demands. We deem this as the highest level of disrespect for the very workers they represent who remained on the streets and on picket lines on the premise that the solution to their frustrations would emanate from the strike. We are also aware that they have sought political interventions while promising workers that their toil, which pitted them against the very communities they serve would yield fruit.

 

While the PSCBC is a democratic space where all recognised parties can engage in peaceful negotiations, presenting fresh demands at this stage of negotiations, as we near the end of the sensitive talks could undo all the gains the majority unions have secured for workers thus far. This is the reason parties agree on a timeline that would be followed as negotiations take place. It is to avoid a situation where the efforts of the majority are thwarted by a minority that chose to protest instead of coming to the negotiation table.

 

Fedusa-affiliated public service unions want to assure its members in all departments and government agencies represented at the PSCBC that it is their interests that remain at the heart of all the steps negotiators have taken and will take. That it is their mandates that pave the way forward for how these negotiations will eventually conclude.

 

21 February 2023

 

As the Federation of Unions of South Africa reflects on the upcoming tabling of the national budget by the finance minister this week, the resolution of the dire economic crisis being faced by South Africans is of utmost priority.

 

• COST-OF-LIVING CRISIS

The poor and workers are being strangled by surging costs of necessities, including food. The situation is untenable. We have heard the government openly note that indeed the crisis has worsened post the Covid-19 pandemic years. However, there has been no real effort to cushion struggling South Africans who can barely afford electricity with prices increasing consistently while evidence shows us that salaries are shrinking and have been for years. By March 2022, the real average South African salary fell below the R15 000 mark, an annual fall of -5,6%.

 

• PUBLIC SERVICE WORKERS

Among those workers affected, are public servants who have just entered the 2023 wage negotiations process with the hope that the government will raise salaries significantly. This sector has not had protection from the inflationary spiral since 2020, with workers receiving less than CPI adjustments, with little movement on their pensionable earnings. We appeal to the finance minister to keep in line with the outcomes of the Public Sector summit last year that spelt out the need for Treasury to await the wage negotiations process before a set amount is placed. Whatever remains of the already budgeted R45 billion over the three-year MTEF period will not suffice to cover real increases. Fedusa affiliates in the public sector have demonstrated good faith by returning to negotiations despite a strike threat by other unions because our members are committed to making South Africa work effectively again.

 

• POST OFFICE AND TELKOM

Close to 8 000 workers at the Post Office and Telkom are facing job losses in a labour market climate that has seen workers struggle to re-enter once retrenched. The challenges that have brought the Post Office to its knees are known to the government and national treasury, yet South Africans have watched as this once critical institution dwindles to near death, robbing millions of people access to mail in a country with low internet access that drives inequality.  The finance minister must engage his colleagues in government to utilise the funds in the Employment and Labour department’s job creation and job preservation schemes to save these jobs. The National Development plan places great weight on the government’s ability to ensure decent work is maintained and that human and workers’ rights are respected. We want to see government walk the talk, by saving these 6000 jobs at the Post Office and the at risk 1 770 jobs at Telkom as it claims restructuring.

 

• FUEL LEVIES

We also want to remind the national treasury of Fedusa’s campaign requesting the government to intervene in the runaway fuel prices. We note the efforts made by the government last year to cushion motorists as the Russia-Ukraine war exacerbated the costs. We call on the finance minister to announce once again that there will be no increases to the fuel price levy. This suspension will grant workers, commuters, and small businesses some breathing room.

 

Fuel levies place a burden on already strained commuters, who are subjected to use taxis and other modes of transport. FEDUSA therefore calls on the government to prioritise the rehabilitation of railway infrastructure, to be able to provide commuters with affordable mode of transport.

 

• BASIC INCOME GRANT

Fedusa also appeals to the national treasury to take the necessary steps to make the R350 Social Relief of Distress grant permanent, while scaling it up. In the Medium-term Budget Policy Statement last year, the minister extended the grant to March 2024. Then he planted the seed of the introduction of a new permanent social grant that would have to be accompanied by significant growth in income, a significant reduction in spending, or both. We hope that as the Minister returns to parliament for the budget speech, this matter will take priority once more, with clear set timelines for the implementation of relief to poor South Africans. We cannot wait forever on the government to assess the various modalities it has said it is exploring over the years. The crisis is now and is harming the prospects of children who are stunted due to poor diet because of poverty, while some South Africans, including the working poor, are forced to go to bed on empty stomachs. We equally remain committed to the call for a universal basic income as an urgent need, as the SRD grant demonstrates.

 

• CRIME

Fedusa is concerned about the renewed surge in attacks on armoured trucks that transports money between retailers and banks in the country. The cash-in-transit heists as they are referred to are peaking once more, with

 

incidents reported weekly. We are concerned about the lives of our members who get killed and injured during these attacks. There is also the economic impact it carries. Cash is no doubt an important component of the South African economy. The CIT industry’s failure to safely distribute cash across the country could bring our struggling economy to its feet. There is also the threat that crime levels in general pose to our economic growth, with investors open about their reluctance to bring international capital to a country viewed as largely violent even beyond our borders.

 

• JUST TRANSITION

President Cyril Ramaphosa told the people of this country during his recent state of the nation address that the government is continuing with its just transition to a low carbon economy with one of the key goals being the opening of new investments and industries that can create new jobs. We look forward to hearing more about this from the finance minister to fully understand how the R1,5 trillion just energy transition investment plan will work. The Just Transition project is an initiative of the country’s social partners including Fedusa and other organised labour. Its success is fully reliant on transparency. Fedusa calls on the national treasury to invest some of the funds on an institution or just transition centre that will enable continuity and openness sothat it is indeed inclusive and has no negative impact on job security.

Fedusa also looks forward to the finance minister’s explanation of how the country’s infrastructure will be revived. Finer details about the infrastructure projects worth R232 billion that are under construction is also expected.

South Africans need to have their hope revived; we hope the budget speech will give us a clear roadmap of how the country will make its way out of the prolonged period of suffering.

-END-

27 January 2023

The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) congratulates United National Transport Union (UNTU) on their victory after the Labour court ruled in their favour and ordered the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) to honour obligations to the 2020 salary/wage settlement agreement.

 

PRASA will need to make payment for each UNTU member, a 5% wage increase in terms of the Wage Agreement concluded on 23 October 2020 with effect from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

 

The two-year-long battle to get UNTU members that is due to them has finally paid off, but the war is far from over. However, FEDUSA would like to thank UNTU for their determination to fight until the very last end.

It is disappointing that UNTU had to go to lengths in their fight for an agreement that was not honoured by PRASA. Therefore, FEDUSA calls on PRASA to accept the Labour Court’s judgment and implement it accordingly.

 

 

For interviews please contact:

 

For Media enquiries

Betty Moleya

0613961841

 

Ms Riefdah Ajam

FEDUSA General Secretary

079 696 2625

 

Mr Ashley Benjamin

FEDUSA Deputy General Secretary

0832584433

13 January 2023

 

The Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) is enraged by the decision of the National Energy Regulator’s (NERSA) to grant Eskom tariff increases of 18.65% and 12.74% over the next two year.

NERSA’s approval of the electricity tariff increases will spell a devastating reality for the poor and working class as this means prices of basic goods and other necessary items will hike and cost of living will spiral. The increase will see many South Africans struggling to survive.

 

It is inconsiderate for NERSA to grant the increase whilst there is a myriad of problems at Eskom and South Africans are now subjected to extensive power cuts daily.

We are currently on load shedding stage 6 and this has had a huge negative impact on schools, businesses, hospitals and other sectors. This cannot be the new normal for the country and FEDUSA calls for urgent results driven intervention by the government.

 

Consumers are buying electricity that they never get to use fully yet the service remains expensive, problematic, and unreliable. In the private sectors the levels of loadshedding are killing all efforts to create and sustain jobs, short time and company closures are common. The increase in tariffs more than three times the current inflation rate will force companies to save money elsewhere and jobs will be lost.

 

Site the costs of losses for everyday that the power is out. Undue expenditure and inability to recoup losses due to downtime, only points to massive S189 processes being initiated by struggling employers and businesses.

Inability and continued delays in bringing power stations on board after scheduled maintenance, is only frustrating the process. FEDUSA demands action by government with absolute urgency and conviction, failing which, the noble efforts of the Economic Resconstruction and Recovery Plan as well as the Eskom Compact will be rendered worthless, as workers and South African’s face demise.

 

Just weeks shy of the State of the Nation Address, President Ramaphosa needs to save this nation and provide solutions to end the problems at the power utility and the country’s economic crisis.

FEDUSA therefore calls for the increase not to be implemented and for the decision to be revisited.

 

 

For Media enquiries

Betty Moleya

0613961841

 

For interviews please contact:

Ms Riefdah Ajam

FEDUSA General Secretary

079 696 2625

 

Mr Ashley Benjamin

FEDUSA Deputy General Secretary

0832584433