Trade union federation Fedusa has accused high-earning government officials of living lavishly while civil servants battle to keep up with the high costs of living.
Public service workers are locked in a bitter battle with the government amid calls for wage increases in line with inflation.
Workers affiliated to Fedusa, including the public servants’ association, want a 10 per cent increase.
But the government says it can’t afford more than its offer of 3 per cent.
Hundreds of public servants in parts of the country took to the streets this past week on a strike against the government’s response to their wage demands.
Fedusa’s general secretary Reifda Ajam says the wage disparity between government executives and civil servants is an injustice.
“Let’s take a look at a 3 percent increase on somebody at a lower level who may be earning, for example, R6,000 a month. How do you compare that with an official whose salary on an executive level is over the R1.8 million mark? So you have to do justice to what you are asking for because this is not true to collective bargaining.”
The trade union federation says the future of collective bargaining in the labour sector is under threat, following the latest collapse in wage negotiations between public service workers and the government.
Workers have called for a fresh round of negotiations for the current financial year but the government says it’s only ready to begin talks for the 2023/24 cycle.
Ajam says the government’s plan to unilaterally implement its three per cent wage offer sets a bad precedent.
“And when you take a look look at collective bargaining that is being eroded at this point in time and the public is still expecting a service to be delivered and public servants always have to take the tail end of what has been handed out to them, and with an improvement in services, in conditions…means that the delivery then to the general public out there will be far more better than what they are right now.”
-EWN
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