ILC, Cosatu to meet tomorrow on govt revised offer

The Independent Labour Caucus (ILC) and Cosatu will meet tomorrow to seek a unified counter proposal to the government's revised R6.5% pay rise offer for public servants.

Unions under the ILC and Cosatu held separate meetings today to come up with a new proposed pay package after they had rejected the government's revised offer last night. Manie de Clercq, the ILC chairperson, says he hopes a meeting with government at the Public Sector Co-ordinated Bargaining Council could be arranged as soon as the unions have found common ground.

Public service unions have been on strike for five days, with state hospitals and schools worse affected. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, the public service minister, says unions need to respond to the government's new salary offer because the current strike must stop. Fraser-Moleketi says the state's new offer is R4 billion more than the original R9 billion.

She says her department will press criminal charges where there is clear identification of striking workers intimidating those who are not striking. She has appealed to essential services workers to return to work.