EDITORIAL | Unions have more to worry about than wage increases

Public sector unions on a stayaway on Wednesday have clearly not read the temperature of the room. It’s icy.

Just a week ago Stats SA data showed that 2.2 million people lost their jobs in the second quarter of this year. Others have had their salaries slashed, in some cases permanently, while at some workplaces shifts have been reduced, and who knows when those companies will be back at full steam, if ever? 

Forecasts for economic growth are poor, and certain sectors of the economy still cannot operate properly, meaning more businesses will fail. 

But here we have public sector unions downing tools because the government does not want to honour the wage agreement.

The government may have no option in a few years’ time to shed jobs in the public sector.

Granted, it’s a blow to have negotiated a multiyear wage deal, only to have the wage increase due in the final year scrapped, and granted, government made this decision before the pandemic hit SA.

But here we are: in a far worse position than in the first quarter of this year when the government said it wanted out of its commitment to pay the wage increase in the final year of the public sector wage deal. 

There are no guarantees for anyone. Unions need to take a long view, because the state’s finances are likely to deteriorate further, and it won’t just be no salary increases, it will be job cuts.

The government may have no option in a few years’ time but to shed jobs in the public sector and at state-owned enterprises, especially if the wage bill keeps rising. Something has got to give. 

And yes, many teachers work hard, as do nurses and doctors. There are pockets of excellence in the public service, but also swathes of inefficiency and bad attitude. Not helped by poor and, in some cases, corrupt leadership. 

So to public servants who feel aggrieved: welcome to the real world. With shrinking employment in the private sector, those who still have work often have to take on extra duties, for no extra pay, and at some point (possibly sooner than expected) a job in the public service may no longer mean sheltered employment, as it has for at least the past seven decades.