Eyewitness News 3.png
Public Servants Set to March for Higher Wage Increases The state put a 4,8 percent increase on the table but unions want nothing less than 10 percent Xolani Koyana, Eyewitness News, Cape Town, 16 April 2015 Public servants will take to the streets next week in an effort to put pressure on government to give into their wage demands. Unions in the public sector and government have been negotiating a wage increase for the last seven months. The state put a 4,8 percent increase on the table but unions want nothing less than 10 percent. Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) affiliated unions held a media briefing on Thursday. The unions will now direct their anger towards National Treasury, in a one-day march to be held in Pretoria next Thursday. National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (NEHAWU) General Secretary Bereng Soke said a directive from treasury was the reason for government dragging its feet in wage talks. "Treasury has announced that government will not increase the total package of employees in government by more than 6,6 percent." Soke said the march aimed to call for an end to treasury's directive. Although the march will take place in Gauteng, pickets are set to be held in other provinces. Parties have until the first week of May to find common ground before the current conciliation lapses. Meanwhile, COSATU-affiliated unions are locked in a meeting to determine their next recourse following yet another round of failed wage talks with government. The unions, along with the Public Service Association, have been in conciliation with the Department of Public Service and Administration since last week. Despite another attempt at finding a solution, it appears the parties have been unable to find common ground. NEHAWU spokesman Sizwe Pamla said an announcement would be made on Thursday evening. "Currently we are in a meeting with the Independent Labour Caucus to find out if they are joining us in that press conference so that we can, as labour, announce our way forward starting from tomorrow what are some of the activities that we will be doing. Everything points to a strong possibility that we might be withdrawing our labour soon." (Edited by Winnie Theletsane) From: http://ewn.co.za/2015/04/16/Public-servants-to-march-for-higher-wage-increas e -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
