General: Wage bill containment promises compromised?

Planned strike action by the Public Servants Association could scupper efforts to contain a wage bill long flagged by rating agencies as a source of concern (IoL). According to yesterday’s Department of Public Service and Administration media statement on a seven-day notice to strike apparently served on Tuesday, it violates bargaining rules and processes by ‘disregarding standing protocol and procedure for a 21-day window’ – designed to allow unions represented in the public sector bargaining council sufficient time to accept or reject a wage offer, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch. 

An Institute of Race Relations report released in April and entitled ‘Slaying the Dragon’ among other things notes that the growth in expenditure on public sector wages has prevented the state from playing a more positive role in driving economic growth (Business Day), the slow pace of which is another rating agency concern. While a three-year ‘above inflation offer’ tabled on 30 May after protracted negotiations has met with the approval of most employees represented in the bargaining council, some unions are apparently reluctant to announce this officially for fear of ‘being labelled sell outs’ by labour organisations opposed to the deal (Mail & Guardian).

This notwithstanding, Public Service and Administration Minister Ayanda Dlodlo is confident that ‘essential services such as healthcare (and) policing … will not be disrupted’ by the planned strike. According to her department’s statement, she expects the public servants concerned to be ‘guided’ by the batho pele value statement, ‘we belong, we care, we serve’. This despite recent evidence of complete disregard for these fundamental principles on the part of healthcare workers in several North West provincial facilities and Gauteng’s Charlotte Maxeke hospital – where members of the National Health and Allied Workers Union led protest action characterised by intimidation (The Citizen) and the vandalisation of public property (EWN).