State revises wage offer for public servants Paul Vecchiatto, Business Day, Johannesburg, 24 April 2015 The government has revised its wage offer to public servants, but it is still far from the trade union demands of a 10% cost of living increase. On Friday, acting public service and administration Minister Nathi Mthethwa outlined the government's offer, which will be presented at the next round of wage negotiations scheduled for Tuesday May 28. Mr Mthethwa said the government had decided to make its offer public before presenting it to the unions following Thursday's march in Pretoria by members of about 15 public sector unions. Government's current offer includes: . improving the Government Employees Medical Scheme subsidy from a rise of 17.6% to 28.5%; . introducing three days' paternity leave for public sector employees; . increasing family responsibility leave to five days from two for those who have children with special needs; . and raising the housing allowance from R900 to R1,200 per month. The cost of living increases will be based on the consumer price index (CPI) rise plus one percent for the 2015-16 year. "Current CPI is at a year-on-year growth rate of 4.8%," Mr Mthethwa said. The government is also offering projected CPI plus 0.5% for the 2016-17 and the 2017-18 financial years. Mr Mthethwa said currently the government wage bill was R400bn and this was projected to rise to R437bn in the 2015-16 financial year. "This constitutes about 35.5% of the total government budget. The current employer offer is estimated at R37bn and is inclusive of the medical aid subsidy and the housing allowance," he said. Mr Mthethwa said any increase beyond what is budgeted would lead to borrowing for recurring expenses such as salaries, and impact negatively on the operational budgets of departments, infrastructure development, employment creation, and service delivery. "For this reason the employer believes that the current offer is fair and reasonable and takes into account the current economic situation of our country while sufficiently cushioning the salaries of public service employees from the effects of inflation," he said. Mr Mthethwa acknowledged that what the government was offering was far from what the public sector unions were demanding. He said while the conciliation process was continuing there was no need for a strike. "Any industrial action, including yesterday's (Thursday's) march while the conciliation process is continuing is both unlawful and unprotected," Mr Mthethwa said. From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2015/04/24/state-revises-wage-offer- for-public-servants -- -- 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.
