The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has voiced its opposition to a government-gazetted report that elected officials should receive a 3% salary increase.
The report, from the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers, has cited potential salary increases for President Cyril Ramaphosa, Members of Parliament (MPs), ministers and other officials for the financial year ahead.
Cosatu’s general secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali says public servants deserve an increase.
“They seem not to be listening to what is happening around them. The economy is bad, there is the mismanagement of funds, there are people who are supposed to be longing after the funds who are not doing their jobs, most of them.”
“The people who deserve to be getting an increase are the public servants, the lowly paid. They have agreed that there should be a wage freeze for three years but all of a sudden the Commission says those people deserve an increase,” adds Ntshalintshali.
Below is the full interview with Bheki Ntshalintshali:
Government wins wage bill battle
In February, public sector unions lost their Constitutional Court bid to force the government to honour its 2018 three-year wage agreement.
Government reneged on some aspects of its collective wage agreement, citing lower tax revenue.
The salary increase would have added R38 billion to the already high public sector wage bill.
The Constitutional Court dismissed the public sector union’s application for permission to appeal a 2020 Labour Appeal Court judgment.
In that judgment, the Labour Appeal Court dismissed the unions’ application to enforce clause 3.3 of the collective agreement.
The said clause determined the public sector wage increases for the 2020/21 financial year.
The video below is reporting on the court ruling over public wage bill:
