Durban - Any hopes of a quick and painless settlement for the public sector wage negotiations are unlikely.
Unions said on Thursday they would not settle for an inflation-related increase as suggested by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene.
Unions across the board said that with the ever-rising cost of living, there was no way workers would get by on an inflation-related increase of around 6.6 percent.
While the public service negotiations have kicked off, the government is yet to make its counter-offer.
Cosatu and unions belonging to the independent labour caucus in the public service are demanding a 15 percent pay rise.
The 16 unions, which represent around 1.3 million state employees, also want a R3 000 housing allowance and for increases in medical aid payments to be more than the CPI.
While labour will decrease its demands as the negotiations progress, unions affiliated to Cosatu, which have the majority in the public service, have so far been adamant that they will not drop their wage demands below a double-digit figure.
The National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) has also hinted at a strike if employers do not come to the party.
Nene said in his medium-term budget policy statement this week that in the present economic conditions it was especially important to balance spending on public servants and resources required for service provision.
Squeeze
He also announced freezing of personnel headcounts as well as permanent withdrawal of funded vacant posts as measures to cut costs.
But even unions which are cognisant of the economic squeeze the country is facing warn that they cannot accept low pay rises.
SA Teachers Union chief executive Chris Klopper said yesterday that CPI had been the basis for salary adjustments during the past few years, so linking increases to inflation was in itself not a problem.
“The average increase over the last eight years has been an average of CPI + 1.6 percent. But, in certain years the increase exceeded the average to compensate for extraneous factors.
“Food inflation that has been closer to 9 percent during the last few months, Eskom increases that will be 12.69 percent next year, petrol increase of more than R1.24 per litre during the past 12 months. To meet such increases an adjustment of just CPI will not really suffice,” he said.
Klopper, who chairs the independent labour caucus, said medical aid subsidies and housing allowances had not been adjusted since 2011.
Nehawu said yesterday it could not accept cost cuts.
“As it is, the public service has still not recovered from the mass retrenchments of the Gear period, and the state’s capacity to effectively deliver services to our people has been undermined,” said a Nehawu statement. - The Mercury