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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-

08 February 2023

The Federation of Unions of South African (FEDUSA) looks forward to the delivery of the State of the Nation Address by President Cyril Ramaphosa tomorrow with great anticipation for much needed solutions to the multiple crises the country is currently facing. We go into the 2023 SONA despondent as a nation following increases in interest rates while the cost of living continues to spiral. South Africans are also confronted with frequent power cuts that compromise their quality of life while causing irreversible damage to the economy and the country’s labour market. Despite past promises by President Cyril Ramaphosa that we would see those suspected of having a hand in the collapse of the state through the State Capture project would be behind bars, however this is also far from being realised.

Fedusa hopes that the President will have a clear and implementable plan for the following:
• Eskom
The power utility has been on its knees for years, with recent updates by task teams and committees responsible for resolving the crisis indicating that the electricity generation capacity of the entity will not improve anytime soon. Fedusa wants the President to make pronouncements on the procurement and regulatory challenges holding up Eskom’s ability to fix existing power stations and to bring new capacity online. We also expect an announcement on the suggested declaration of a state of disaster to ease procurement requirements and other regulatory matters that may be hampering the entity’s management from carrying out its duties efficiently.

• Jobs
As a result of the loadshedding crisis, companies in various sectors including motor and hospitality have indicated they will have to cut jobs with unions across the board seized with Section 189 retrenchment processes. Fedusa wants the President to address employers on what measures his administration will implement to reverse this trend. Ramaphosa came into office on the back of many promises, including the creation of millions of jobs. However, this undertaking immediately fails when millions of employed South Africans who would otherwise have job security, out on the streets due to unreliable energy supply. The country is on edge with 43% of the labour force unemployed.

• Local Government
The country’s municipalities have collapsed. Its finances are in shambles and have been for a long time. As a result, not even water provision, that is a basic human right, can be guaranteed. Municipalities have become a feeding ground for corruption, with the Auditor General reminding us yearly that officials are not qualified to carry out their duties as a result undermine the functions of municipalities as prescribed in the constitution. The President must share with the nation a detailed plan of how this problem will be resolved. We have heard many reassurances over the years about measures including the District Development Model that were aimed making municipalities effective again, yet these have failed to improve the situation in municipalities.

• Gender-Based-Violence
Fedusa has noted the government’s continued avoidance to implement the resolutions made in the first and second gender summit. A gender council as agreed to is yet to be established. Shelters meant to help abused women, children and others remain in unliveable condition. On the workplace front, Fedusa wants the President to take charge of the processes meant to implement and domesticate the International Labour Organisation’s Convention 190 and Recommendation 206 that seek to address violence and harassment in the world of work.

• Social Relief of Distress Grant
Fedusa hopes that the President will make an announcement on the extension of the Social Relief of Distress grant which has proven a lifesaver for many South Africans albeit below the poverty line. The R350 must be increased, and the requirements must be expansive enough to be accessible to poor people. Poverty is a crisis in South Africa. Ramaphosa promised to end poverty within a generation, this will not happen if nearly half the labour force cannot access the job market and are only extended the paltry R350 to survive.

• Crime
The writing has been on the wall for some time, however, recently crime appears to be spiralling out of control, with reports indicating that South Africa could soon become a mass murder capital like Colombia. This is a terrifying prospect. We need the President to address the public’s concerns over violent crime and what intervention he and his cabinet will implement to address this. The spate of killings and the high crime levels have a devastating impact on many aspects of the South African society including the economy and personal freedom.
The problems confronting the country are many and those mentioned above are just a few in the pile. We hope that President Cyril Ramaphosa will rise to the occasion and use his SONA address to give angry, demoralised, and anxious South Africans some relief.

-END-

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

083 258 4433