Johannesburg - Cosatu labour unions have verbally withdrawn from the much-celebrated wage agreement signed with the government last month.
However, the “withdrawal” remains immaterial until the unions follow prescribed procedures in the Labour Relations Act.
The act stipulates that if a collective agreement is disputed, then parties should try resolving it through conciliation; if that fails, refer the dispute to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in writing, and if that too fails, refer it to arbitration.
The Cosatu unions have not yet commenced any of the listed processes, nor formally notified the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) of their supposed withdrawal. The PSCBC is the custodian of all agreements concluded in the public service.
The unions, which represent just over 50 percent of all workers in the public sector bargaining council, said they were also “withdrawing” their participation in all collective bargaining processes.
They are unhappy with the government’s implementation of a 6.4 percent wage increase instead of an agreed-upon 7 percent increase for this year. This despite the government guaranteeing that they would pay workers the 0.6 percent difference if a legal team tasked with resolving an interpretation dispute of a clause in a 2012 agreement found they were wrong to dock workers’ salaries.
The 0.6 percent is deducted due to monies owed to the state after it over-projected inflation and overpaid workers in 2014.
Labour Bureau