By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Public sector unions confirmed on Thursday that they will embark on a full-blown strike indefinitely this month, a move that will ratchet up tensions in a stand-off over wage increases.
The 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.
Wage negotiations reached an impasse last year when the government rejected union demands for 10% raises, and unilaterally implemented a 3% hike.
While Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana is set to table the annual budget on February 22 that will make an allocation for personnel costs over the next three financial years, negotiations on a deal covering that period have yet to get underway.
The strike notice will be issued on the same day Godongwana delivers his budget speech, eight unions that are affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the country’s biggest labour group, said at a briefing in Pretoria on Thursday.
“We are of a view that the employer is not interested in resolving this dispute,” the unions said. “We have resolved to rally our collective might to push the employer to improve the rejected offer and will use everything in our power to register our disdain to the government’s attitude.”
Containing the wage bill is pivotal to government efforts to rein in the nation’s debt, which is set to peak at 71.4% of the gross domestic product in the current fiscal year. Compensation accounts for almost a third of state expenditure after rising by an annual average of two percentage points above the inflation rate for the past decade and is crowding out spending on other priorities.
The Department of Public Service and Administration, under acting minister Thulas Nxesi, has previously called on unions to commence negotiations, but unions have said they will not move ahead without having resolved the 2022/20223 wage talks.