Cape Town - The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and its peers have threatened strike action on March 30 over a decision to freeze salaries.
Nehawu revealed that the government had told a special council meeting of the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) on Tuesday that it would not be increasing the wages of its nearly 1.3 million public servants from April 1.
Public servants were due to receive between 4.4% and 5.4% increases, depending on salary level, in terms of the agreement reached at the
bargaining council in 2018.
Nehawu spokesperson Khaya Xaba said it was preparing for a fight after the government finally admitted its intentions to renege on implementing the last leg of the 2018 PSCBC resolution.
He said the government’s reneging on the full implementation of the wage agreement constituted a frontal attack on workers and their hard-won gains. “Nehawu has always maintained that any intention to disregard collective bargaining is a declaration of war.”
Xaba said the government had been warned numerous times “to desist from provoking their members and the uttering of inciting statements, as they have a huge potential to destabilise the public service”.
Vukani Mbhele, spokesperson for Public Service and Administration Minister Senzo Mchunu, said the ministry could not comment at the stage because they were still engaging with unions.
DA public service and administration spokesperson Leon Schreiber said a planned march by the unions would put the lives of thousands of South Africans at risk.
He said the DA would write to Mchunu calling on him to instruct Nehawu to cancel the march.
“If the government fails to avert this potential disaster, the DA will obtain an urgent interdict against Nehawu’s actions to protect the health and safety of thousands of public servants and other South Africans from exposure to the coronavirus.”
He said Nehawu was threatening to endanger the lives of not only its workers and members, who would be forced to participate in the protest, but also the lives of the broader South African public.
He said the coronavirus was highly contagious and even one infection resulting from the Nehawu march could spread like wildfire.
Nehawu general secretary Zola Saphetha said the DA had never been on the side of workers, nor had they cared about the horrible conditions and slave wages to which workers were often subjected.