Business Report *Baloyi refuses to budge**Donwald Pressly and Samantha Enslin-Payne, Business Report, Johannesburg, 19 August 2010*
The government has dug in its heels and will not budge on its revised offer to public servants. Instead the Public Service and Administration Minister, Richard Baloyi, said yesterday that his director-general would sign the final offer this morning.
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union and the SA Democratic Teachers Union, representing about 500 000 public servants, embarked on an indefinite strike yesterday. Today the Public Service Association's 210 000 members and the Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of South Africa's 72 000 members will join the strike.
Chris Klopper, the chairman of the Independent Labour Caucus, said other unions were still balloting their members. But the strike was expected to escalate.
Unions want an 8.6 percent salary increase and a R1 000 a month housing allowance.
But Baloyi, who was addressing a media briefing at Parliament yesterday, said the government would already have to find an extra R5 billion to pay for its revised offer of a 7 percent salary increase and a R700 monthly housing allowance.
Baloyi said: "As the employer we have tabled our final mandate drawn from serious efforts to manage the situation to ensure it is in the best interests of all South Africa."
He was adamant that the government could not compromise service delivery by cutting back on pledged increases in the numbers of policemen, teachers and medical staff. Reducing staff numbers could not be a trade-off for higher increases to existing public servants, he argued.
The minister said the revised offer presented to the unions had to ensure that its socioeconomic priorities were "not completely compromised". Giving in to the union demands would put R15bn on to the state's salary bill.
Indicating that the government was determined not to go down a route that he described as "suicidal", the minister called for responsibility from union leaders. "We question how a responsible leadership can advocate for an indefinite strike action knowing why the demand cannot be met in this financial year; knowing the impact such action would have on the delivery of services to all the citizens; knowing the adverse effects it would have to the very members whose interests they represent."
The government and labour met on Tuesday at the public service co-ordinating bargaining council in a last ditch effort to find agreement. But late on Tuesday night the unions had rejected the offer.
Baloyi said the final offer would be signed at 10am this morning. "We can't keep negotiating," he said.
Klopper said such a move did not augur well for future negotiations and would destroy relations.
Neren Rau, the chief executive of the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the strike could affect the ease with which companies did business and hinder workers' productivity as they took time off to attend to their children who should be in school.
Rau added that wage negotiations had resulted in additional pressure on public sector finances, which could result in an increase in taxes. - Additional reporting Sapa
*From: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=552&fArticleId=5607801 <http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=552&fArticleId=5607801>*
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