Pretoria – Government is awaiting a legal opinion on the public service wage negotiations, says General Secretary of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), Frikkie De Bruin.
“We are still waiting for a legal opinion on how we should proceed with the negotiations,” he said, adding that the legal opinion would clarify whether government could deduct the 0.6% from the current wage agreement of a 7% hike.
According to De Bruin, government will be meeting with the unions on Thursday for more discussions on the wage negotiations.
Last month, government and the majority of unions representing public servants reached an agreement regarding wage increases, averting a possible strike.
The agreement, which was signed at the PSCBC in Centurion, Pretoria, was to see salaries for public servants increase by 7% this year.
Under the agreement at the time, government was to increase its contribution to employee’s medical aid to 28.5% and housing allowance to R1 200 a month, from R900.
This has since changed since government as the employer has indicated its intention to increase salaries by 6.4% instead of 7%.
Acting Public Service and Administration Minister Nathi Mthethwa said the adjustment was simply to take the accurate CPI figures into account as a result of over-projection in the last round of negotiations three years ago. – SAnews.gov.za
