General: Wage-related cost containment measures mooted

National Treasury is considering ‘several options’ for containing costs following the recent announcement of a three-year public service wage agreement ‘significantly’ exceeding resources made available in the 2018 Budget for employee compensation. This, notes Pam Saxby for Legalbrief Policy Watch, is according to Friday’s Treasury media statement among other things alluding to measures that could include encouraging ‘qualifying public servants’ to take advantage of an ‘updated employee-initiated’ severance and early retirement package. It is envisaged that, by ‘freeing up certain high-earning positions’, the public service will be better placed to ‘absorb more youth’.

Reference is also made to a ‘review of performance management and incentive systems’ – and centralising job grading and evaluation across the public sector. In the absence of interventions along these lines, the wage agreement ‘could have adverse consequences for the composition of public spending and possibly service delivery’.