Labour federation Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has slammed salary hikes of public office bearers as unfair when compared to the salaries being received by struggling public service workers.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has accepted recommendations by the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers, to increase the salaries of politicians and other government officials by 3%.
Watch: Cosatu says 3% increase is a slap in the face for public servants
Inflation in South Africa currently stands at 5.9%. The president announced that the increase would take effect retroactively from the first of April last year.
Cosatu Deputy President, Michael Shingange says the judges and the politicians in government are scheming by saying that public servants do not deserve a salary increase.
“The Labour Appeal Court and the Constitutional Court felt that as public servants, we’re ungrateful for wanting to receive a salary increase in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. Today they’re giving themselves a 3% hike; we hope that they’re going to carry this going forward when the public servants themselves demand what they think they deserve in the upcoming wage negotiations.” reiterates Shingange.
