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Nehawu has accused the public service and administration department for “misleading” the media and the public after it blamed its inability to honour a 2018 wage agreement on the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Picture: Daily Sun
Foto: Daily Sun
An incensed National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has accused the public service and administration department for “misleading” the media and the public after it blamed its inability to honour a 2018 wage agreement on the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Minister of Public Service and Administration Senzo Mchunu on Tuesday said government remained committed to the wage agreement it arrived at with public service unions in 2018, despite the trifecta of challenges facing the economy.
Mchunu did not definitively state whether the agreement would kick in as had been scheduled on April 1.
Mchunu merely reiterated that, during such a time, these matters required “dedication, understanding and commitment from all sides” and said government was reassessing modalities through which to honour the two-year commitment in the context of recent challenges.
“Accordingly, we want to reiterate that government remains committed to the implementation of the 2018 wage agreement notwithstanding the aforesaid difficulties, at stake is how to do it, and this matters most,” said the minister.
Nehawu has interpreted this as meaning that Mchunu is now seeking to renege on implementing “the last leg of the 2018 public service wage agreement especially clause 3.3 of Resolution 1 of 2018”.
Government agreed in 2018 to hike public service wages by consumer price index (CPI) plus 1% for general workers and CPI plus 0.5% for workers at a director level from April 1.
According to Nehawu, “the statement by Mchunu suggests that government cannot honour the agreement because of the following reasons; the outbreak of the coronavirus; the downgrading of South Africa’s credit rating to junk status by the credit rating agency Moody’s and the recession”.
Nehawu’s media statement issued by its “secretariat” accuses public service and administration and, by extension, government of “capitulating from this commitment earlier this month”, saying “it notes with concern the misleading of the media”.
“We find this very disingenuous and insulting because it was on February 25 at a public service co-ordinating bargaining council meeting that the government proposed to review the agreement.
“The case of the first person who tested positive with the coronavirus was announced by the minister of health on March 5 and the downgrade by Moody’s only took place on March 27.
Statistics SA announced on March 3 that the South African economy shrank by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Government is grasping at straws trying to explain their inability to pay workers what is due to them and, in the process, using blackmail to absolve itself,” said Nehawu.
The union added that “every excuse that government was trying to use to justify reneging on the implementation of the agreement happened way after they made their intention to opt-out of the agreement”.
Nehawu accuses government of “going out of its way to appeal for the understanding and public sympathy against workers” while on the other hand “continuing to use workers as scapegoats for problems in the fiscus”.
“Government does not deserve any public sympathy and must be exposed for trying to reverse the gains of workers and also for punishing workers for sins not of their making by not fully implementing binding agreements signed by both parties at the bargaining council.”
The union made it clear that any offer made by government below the 2018 wage agreement “was rejected outrightly by all unions the bargaining council”.
“We shall no longer engage government on the matter because government had made it clear that they are reneging on the implementation of the current agreement.”
Nehawu was set to protest but had to halt its plans due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 21-day lockdown that was instituted as part of the measures to curb the spread of the virus.
The union also expressed its dissatisfaction over the government’s lack of provision of protective gear to its members, particularly those in the healthcare at the front-line.
Nehawu threatened that if the provision of protective gear did not happen by Wednesday, it would take the department of health to court.
Minister of Public Service and Administration Senzo Mchunu on Tuesday said government remained committed to the wage agreement it arrived at with public service unions in 2018, despite the trifecta of challenges facing the economy.
Mchunu did not definitively state whether the agreement would kick in as had been scheduled on April 1.
Mchunu merely reiterated that, during such a time, these matters required “dedication, understanding and commitment from all sides” and said government was reassessing modalities through which to honour the two-year commitment in the context of recent challenges.
“Accordingly, we want to reiterate that government remains committed to the implementation of the 2018 wage agreement notwithstanding the aforesaid difficulties, at stake is how to do it, and this matters most,” said the minister.
Nehawu has interpreted this as meaning that Mchunu is now seeking to renege on implementing “the last leg of the 2018 public service wage agreement especially clause 3.3 of Resolution 1 of 2018”.
Government agreed in 2018 to hike public service wages by consumer price index (CPI) plus 1% for general workers and CPI plus 0.5% for workers at a director level from April 1.
According to Nehawu, “the statement by Mchunu suggests that government cannot honour the agreement because of the following reasons; the outbreak of the coronavirus; the downgrading of South Africa’s credit rating to junk status by the credit rating agency Moody’s and the recession”.
Nehawu’s media statement issued by its “secretariat” accuses public service and administration and, by extension, government of “capitulating from this commitment earlier this month”, saying “it notes with concern the misleading of the media”.
“We find this very disingenuous and insulting because it was on February 25 at a public service co-ordinating bargaining council meeting that the government proposed to review the agreement.
“The case of the first person who tested positive with the coronavirus was announced by the minister of health on March 5 and the downgrade by Moody’s only took place on March 27.
Statistics SA announced on March 3 that the South African economy shrank by 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Government is grasping at straws trying to explain their inability to pay workers what is due to them and, in the process, using blackmail to absolve itself,” said Nehawu.
The union added that “every excuse that government was trying to use to justify reneging on the implementation of the agreement happened way after they made their intention to opt-out of the agreement”.
Nehawu accuses government of “going out of its way to appeal for the understanding and public sympathy against workers” while on the other hand “continuing to use workers as scapegoats for problems in the fiscus”.
“Government does not deserve any public sympathy and must be exposed for trying to reverse the gains of workers and also for punishing workers for sins not of their making by not fully implementing binding agreements signed by both parties at the bargaining council.”
The union made it clear that any offer made by government below the 2018 wage agreement “was rejected outrightly by all unions the bargaining council”.
“We shall no longer engage government on the matter because government had made it clear that they are reneging on the implementation of the current agreement.”
Nehawu was set to protest but had to halt its plans due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 21-day lockdown that was instituted as part of the measures to curb the spread of the virus.
The union also expressed its dissatisfaction over the government’s lack of provision of protective gear to its members, particularly those in the healthcare at the front-line.
Nehawu threatened that if the provision of protective gear did not happen by Wednesday, it would take the department of health to court.
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