This week we’ll speak to our politics team on the future of the Cosatu and more.
Such increases could threaten the government’s ability to keep this year’s budget deficit in check at 4.6% of GDP Thursday.
“The state has lost patience and terminated bargaining,” Chris Klopper, spokesperson for the Independent Labour Caucus – a state union umbrella group involved in the negotiations – said on Thursday.
Cosatu, representing 14 state unions with an estimated 1.3-million members, has been pushing for an 8% raise, down from 10% initially demanded.
The government has been offering 6.5%, compared with headline inflation at 6.1% in April.
In its February budget, the treasury allowed for a wage increase of only 5% for public servants, adding that a ballooning state salary bill was crowding out investment in infrastructure and other key productive sectors.
Any settlement above 5% is likely to undermine the government’s ability to get the budget deficit in Africa’s biggest economy down from the current forecast of 4.6% of GDP.
South African wage negotiations tend to last several weeks in a mid-year bargaining session known as strike season, with unions often downing tools to back their demands, disrupting mine production and hitting services in hospitals and schools. – Reuters