HOSPERSA BLASTS GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSAL TO REVIEW PUBLIC SERVICE WAGE AGREEMENT
Hospersa, which represents more than 50 000 public servants [predominately health workers] has rejected Government’s request to review clause 3.3 of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) Resolution 1 of 2018 which talks to public servants wage increases for 2020/21. Government has made this request citing that it cannot afford public servants’ salary adjustments to be effected on 1 April 2020. Hospersa has criticised government’s failure to plan and has vowed to take the state to task should it fail to implement the already meagre increases that were signed for in 2018 by other unions in the PSCBC.
Just a day before the Minister of Finance [Mr Tito Mboweni] delivers his budget vote, government made a presentation to labour organisation at the PSCBC regarding the public wage bill. At the crux of the presentation, government put forward a request for parties to review clause 3.3 of the PSCBC Resolution 1 of 2018 which talks to public servants salary adjustment for period 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, effective from 1 April 2020 as follows:
Level 1 to 7: Projected CPI + 1.0%
Level 8 to 10: Projected CPI + 0.5%; and
Level 11 to 12: Projected CPI
When the agreement was signed in 2018, Hospersa is one of the Unions that rejected the offer citing that the salary adjustments are too little and did not address the economic challenges of rising prices which continue to diminish the spending of public servants. The Union has now rejected this proposal and has criticised government’s failure to plan for this year’s salary adjustment as per the agreement signed by other Unions.
“Hospersa rejects governments’ proposal to review the public service wage agreement for 2020/21,” said Hospersa Public Relations Officer, Kevin Halama. “We find it shocking that the state would put forward such a proposal citing that it cannot afford to the honour an agreement it signed for. These revelations show that government has failed to plan properly and now wants public servants to pay for its maladministration,” added Halama.
“We also find it very ironic that this proposal is presented to labour unions just a day before the Finance Minister delivers his budget vote,” said Halama. “We would like to caution the State to stay clear of public servants’ agreed salary adjustments and their pension fund when plugging holes, in the fiscus, that were caused by corruption and maladministration,” added Halama.
“It is worth noting that the current economic challenges that Government finds itself in is partly due to poor management and corruption at State-Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) whereby the State is frequently called upon to issue bail-outs amounting to billions of rands,” said Halama. “It is hypocritical for Government to now plead poverty while billions of rands get wasted due to mismanagement and corruption. Instead of looking at the public service wage bill, Government should focus on recovering the monies lost due to corruption and bring the guilty parties to book to end the chronic culture of looting from public purse,” argued Halama.
“The non-implementation of clause 3.3 of the PSCBC Resolution 1/2018 would put further pressure on public servants that are already battling to cope in the current economic climate characterised by rising petrol prices, increasing electricity costs and increases in basic commodities. Hospersa will exercise all its available avenues to enforce the agreement and protect any other monies due to public servants from being misused to cover-up the deep rooted corruption in Government and in SOE,” concluded Halama.
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