Seven public sector unions representing 800,000 employees have called for a one-day strike

Seven public-sector unions representing 800,000 members have pledged to disrupt service at offices, including hospitals and courts, on a national day of action next Tuesday in protest of the unilateral implementation of a 3% baseline increase in public wages.

The national day of action will include a march to the National Treasury offices in Pretoria, as well as protests in all nine provinces. On Thursday morning, the announcement was made at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) headquarters.

The decision by the government to implement a 3% baseline increase unilaterally prompted the Public Servants’ Association (PSA) to hold a one-day public service strike last Thursday, demanding a better wage offer and an end to job cuts in the public sector.

Other unions present at the briefing included the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), the Police, Prisons, and Civil Rights Union (Popcru), the SA Policing Union (Sapu), the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw), and the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa).

Popcru’s first deputy president, Khehla Masemola, said at a press conference announcing the national day of action that the unions rejected the 3% baseline increase, especially after the government reneged on a previous wage agreement in 2020.

Masemola called Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s remarks on the public wage during his medium-term budget speech an insult.

“As a collective, public service unions at the PSCBC carrying the hopes of public servants, we could not stand by as the government erodes public bargaining. We observed with disdain as the government made jokes about assisting workers by saying ‘sibazamile (we tried to help them)’ in Parliament,” said Masemola.

Masemola stated that protests would continue beyond next week’s national day of action “until the day that unions declare a [full-blown] strike”

Masemola claimed that the government’s actions in public sector wage negotiations sought to erode bargaining power since reneging on a wage agreement in 2020, and that longstanding vacancies in the public sector undermined service delivery more than a bloated public sector.

“Our standpoint is also to demonstrate the seriousness with which we take the government’s efforts to undermine collective bargaining and previous agreements. They want workers to be at peace with less than inflation increases,” Masemola said.

The unions at the briefing said that even public servants who provided essential services were willing to go on strike. The government has previously stated that no-work, no-pay would be implemented in government offices.
During last week’s one-day strike, the PSA gave the government a week to respond to its demands. The unions claimed that at the time of the briefing, the government had yet to respond to the demands.