Thulas Nxesi 'sleeping on duty': Cosatu public sector unions call for minister to recuse himself

Workers demand 10% increase after rejecting 3% offer

24 October 2022 - 14:05
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National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union deputy general secretary December Mavuso says the 10% demand was motivated by rising food, electricity and transport costs which are the main drivers of their members' expenditure patterns. File image.
National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union deputy general secretary December Mavuso says the 10% demand was motivated by rising food, electricity and transport costs which are the main drivers of their members' expenditure patterns. File image.
Image: Mark Andrews

Cosatu’s joint mandating committee (JMC) has lashed out at public service and administration acting minister Thulas Nxesi for insisting he will implement a 3% wage increase for public servants despite a collapse in negotiations.

According to the JMC, which comprises public sector Cosatu affiliates, there is no existing offer on the table for Nxesi to implement.

Cosatu said the government has withdrawn the 3% offer, meaning Nxesi does not have a leg to stand on in implementing an offer that has ceased to exist.

It was for this reason the unions were demanding a 10% increase “across the board on the cost-of-living adjustment and invoked the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) dispute resolution mechanism”.

If Nxesi is not alive to real time “facts”, charged Cosatu, he has no business continuing in the job.

“The offer that was in a draft resolution of council has not enjoyed majority support. There is no offer that has been signed that we can call a resolution. There is nothing the employer can claim has been accepted by majority of the unions,” said National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union deputy general secretary December Mavuso.

“There is nothing to talk about because the employer has withdrawn the offer. It is disingenuous for the minister [Nxesi] to say we must accept the offer. We do not recall any meeting where the employer has given us a new offer. The one they chose must fall away.

“Those are the facts and it will not be changed by the minister, who made a tactical error of judgment. If the minister is sleeping on duty and is not sure what is happening in the PSCBC, he must ask the president to be recused from that portfolio because it would mean he does not know what is happening  as the minister in charge of the process.”

Mavuso alleged Nxesi’s move was part of the government’s deliberate plot to strip collective bargaining of its power and purpose. He said Cosatu affiliates were not going to stand by and watch “this unbecoming behaviour of the employer undermining social dialogue and wanting to bulldoze their way”.

Mavuso said the 10% demand was motivated by food, electricity and transport costs, which are the main drivers of their members' expenditure patterns, being “way above the set Consumer Price Index”.

He said considering all factors, inflation was setting workers on a negative economic path. “It is therefore very disappointing for the employer, who has openly declared a wage freeze for public service employees in the name of fiscal consolidation, while high-earning parliamentarians and politicians are having a free ride on increases.”     

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