No increases for government staff
COSTLY: Wage bills ‘are too high’
The country’s 1.3 million government employees will not receive any wage increases until at least 2024 as their salaries are unaffordable to the public purse and due to Covid-19, a National Treasury document has revealed.
The government’s moratorium on salary increases for public servants has angered unions.
Treasury states that public servants have over the past decade enjoyed increases above inflation in addition to benefits and incentives that add to faster growth in their earnings.
“While government recognises that all its employees should be fairly remunerated, it is obligated to balance compensation demands with the broader needs of society,” reads the document dated August 2020.
It also blames the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s economy and already deteriorating state resources.
“It is necessary for departments to contribute towards reducing the wage bill, more so during these unfavourable economic and fiscal circumstances,” Treasury explains.
About a dozen public sector unions, who are affiliates of Cosatu and the Federation of Unions of SA, on Friday complained that the freezing of salaries happens as negotiations for increases for the next financial year have not even started.
A passive resistance campaign by the unions representing 1.3 million public servants will start today in the form of lunchtime pickets and sit-ins at strategic government offices.