Public servants vow to strike
Public servants are going on strike next month because the government has refused to increase their salaries. Picture: ( ANA)
Public servants are going on strike next month because the government has refused to increase their salaries.
Trade union Cosatu said it fully supports the call to action by its biggest affiliate, the National, Education and Health Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).
Nehawu has announced that state employees will picket from 3 September to demonstrate their discontent if the government does not resolve their demands immediately, including salary increases between 4.4% and 5.4% as agreed in 2018 as well as better working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The union has warned that should the government fail to respond favourably, its members will completely withdraw their labour from 10 September until their demands are met.
Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla told Independent Media yesterday that Nehawu has the federation’s blessings and support for its planned mass action next month.
Pamla said Cosatu was mobilising all unions in the public service to support Nehawu’s action.
“We wholeheartedly support Nehawu’s action. We want public servants to go on a full blown strike,” he said, adding that Cosatu would lead the campaign.
Pamla said the government was not acting like there is a crisis in the country with public servants contracting and succumbing to the deadly Coronavirus.
According to Pamla, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s letter of intent for the R75 billion emergency financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) included an undertaking that the government would freeze public sector wages.
Nehawu’s move comes as unions representing the country’s 1.3 million public servants are challenging the government’s failure to implement the wage agreement at the Labour Court and the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC).
The unions are still waiting for the Labour Court to set down the matter.