The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has rejected the latest wages and salary presented by the South African Local Government Association (Salga). “Salga had revised its previous offer of 4.4% increase to 5.4%. We reject this ridiculous offer as it is still way below our demands‚ there has been no real movement on the part of Salga‚” Samwu said in a statement.The union accuses Salga of failing to negotiate in good faith‚ saying they have been dragging their feet to the negotiating table.“We want to ensure that a new agreement is reached before the current main collective agreement lapses‚ however‚ this can only be done if there is commitment from both sides of the table.“It seems as though Salga is only interested in ensuring that unions commit to the signing of the Service Charter while neglecting bread and butter issues of our members.“Our mandate is for a single year agreement‚ yet Salga continues to want to ensure that workers are tied to a three-year agreement which has no real benefits for them.“The employer has further proposed that the minimum wage in the sector be R5 925‚ which we believe is way too little to address the dire financial strain that municipal workers continue to find themselves in - a situation which is not of their own making‚” the union added.The union also accuses Salga of not moving on its demand for an across-the-board housing allowance for all municipal employees. It says Salga instead insists on giving housing allowance to those who can produce evidence that they have a current bond with a financial institution.“Our argument is that housing allowance should be extended to all employees as a result of the slave wages that Salga gives to its employees. What bond would an employee with a salary of R5 621 get?“Municipal workers are starving while Salga bosses continue to be highly overpaid‚ its principals have just recently received an increase of over R60 000‚ an amount which is more than the annual salary of municipal workers.“Salga cannot also justify the highly inflated annual salary of R3.8 million that its CEO Xolile George receives‚ a salary which he clearly does not deserve given the fact that Salga principals have failed to stabilise the country’s municipalities.”The third round of negotiations will be held on May 18 and 19. - RDM News Wire..