Durban — Acting Public Service and Administration Minister, Thulas Nxesi, said the government is offering a sum total of 7.5% despite the Public Service Unions under the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) saying they have no idea about this offer.
The unions have demanded a wage increase from the government. Nxesi said the 7.5% is composed of the following: non-pensionable cash allowance of R1 000 after tax, which amounts to 4.5%, and a 3% pensionable increase across the board.
He said the 7.5% offer by the government to public servants had been ignored.
“Some in the media fraternity have ignored this fact of a 7.5% government offer and have chosen to continue with the misinformation of only 3%, as propagated by some in organised labour. The result is a grand scale of misleading public service employees and the public at large,” said Nxesi.
The Daily News reported at the beginning of the week that the trade unions said the 7.5% offer was untrue.
Denosa president Simon Hlungwani said there was never a 7.5% offer that was presented at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council, but the government has been trying to pull the wool over public servants by distorting the offer.
Moreover, Nxesi explained that the R1 000 monthly non-pensionable allowance, currently paid to public servants, was actually an increase and not “an allowance”, as it was said by some leaders in organised labour.
He said the non-pensionable cash allowance of R1 000 is actually an outcome of the wage negotiations in the year 2021/22.
“Contrary to the assertion that there was no non-pensionable salary adjustment in the 2021/22 financial year, government was able to put a 6% increase in the pockets of employees through the payment of the R1 000 (4.5%) non-pensionable cash allowance and the 1.5% pay progression to public servants,” he said.
Daily News