Labour: Deputy Minister reassures unions about ‘job security’

Despite ‘fiscal constraints’, ‘over the years’ conditions of employment and pay in the public sector have continued to improve – yet the quality of services has not. Public Service & Administration Deputy Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga made this observation in a speech at last week’s bargaining council 20th anniversary celebrations in Kempton Park, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. However, instead of noting Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s concerns about the spiralling public sector wage bill, Chikunga chose to reassure her audience about the ‘job security’ element of a recent multi-term agreement. This less than 24 hours after a Medium Term Budget Policy Statement committing government to ‘robust discussions in the relevant bargaining structures and with other stakeholders’ with the aim of achieving ‘a sustainable arrangement’. As has been widely reported, ‘after adjusting for inflation, the average government wage has risen by 66% in the last ten years’.

Conceding that the process of negotiating the latest multi-term agreement had been far from ‘smooth sailing’, the Deputy Minister nevertheless described government’s ‘working relationship’ with labour unions represented in the bargaining council as ‘relatively good’ – a term also used in referring to the council’s role in facilitating constructive engagement. However, aside from drawing attention to Mboweni’s call for ‘financial prudence – particularly in the public service’ – Chikunga avoided the tough issues. According to the Deputy Minister, the public service simply ‘needs to re-invent itself’ in order to ‘proactively’ assume the ‘important responsibility’ of addressing poverty, unemployment and inequality and playing a suitably ‘transformative and developmental role’ with that in mind.

In a media statement responding to rating agency Moody’s decision to downgrade SA’s economic outlook from stable to negative, National Treasury alluded to impending discussions with labour about measures to address the public sector wage bill. These could include ‘pegging cost-of-living adjustments at or below CPI inflation, halting automatic pay progression and reviewing occupation-specific dispensations for wages.