South Africa News

Government forges ahead with intention to cut public sector wage bill

The government is forging ahead with its intention to cut the public sector wage bill by revealing new plans that contain even more stringent measures on Wednesday.

They include exploring getting rid of some allowances and benefits while reviewing pay progressions.

This comes ahead of wage negotiations that are set to start at the Public Service Bargaining Council in the coming weeks.

Treasury has pinned a lot of its economic turnaround hopes on reducing the wage bill by over R300 billion in the next three years.

As trade unions continue consolidating mandates to be placed before the government, Treasury has drawn a line in the sand.

While the government said it would engage in the talks on the basis of fairness, equity and affordability it has also spelt out the different risks carried by even the most minimal increases in wages.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said: “The minister of public service is working with organized labour to achieve a fair public sector compensation dispensation when negotiations on a new multi-year wage settlement beginning later this year.”

Inflation-linked increases would make for a shortfall of R112.9 billion by 2024.

If the government agrees to inflation plus one as an increase, that shortfall expands to R132.7 billion.

Last year, the government made the call to halt wage increases as Treasury argued it had not signed off on the agreement, which guaranteed workers CPI plus 1%.

That action has allowed the government to claw back some R37 billion.

The public wage bill costs the state close to R700 billion and absorbed 47% of government revenues during the 2020-2021 financial year.

-EWN

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