PSA rejects 3% salary adjustment – ‘Workers will no longer tolerate disrespect’

The Public Servants Association (PSA) has rejected government’s offer of a 3% pensionable salary adjustment for public service employees on salary level 1 to 12, implementable from 1 April 2022, and continuation of the cash gratuity until 31 March 2023.

The PSA rejected the 3%-increase offer as it does not address realities such as increased interest rates and steep increases in cost-of-living expenses.

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A statement by the PSA said that such an increase will not have a real impact on public servants’ salaries, noting current economic conditions.

“In addition, uncertainty regarding the payment of the cash gratuity beyond the current financial year presents a major huge challenge as employees face the possibility of losing R1 000, which they have been receiving for the past two years,” the statement read.

“It must be noted that the cash gratuity was introduced by the employer as part of the obsession with the containment employee costs at the expense of workers who did not receive the real increase for the past three years. The cash gratuity will never be considered as salary increase and the PSA’s view is that it was a token to mitigate the adverse impact on workers in the wake of the employer’s failure to implement a negotiated increase in 2020,” it read.

Never really recovered financially

The organisation said that since workers were robbed of their increase in 2020, they have never recovered financially. The situation was worsened by the employer’s failure to give the same workers real salary increases in 2021, and instead gave a cash gratuity, something they said was unheard of in the history of public service salary negotiations.

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 At the same time, employees of various state-owned entities (SOE) received salary increases of 5% and above, despite the poor performance of these entities. Government is treating its employees as second-grade employees when it comes to salary adjustment whilst being charitable to the SOE employees.

Members mandated the PSA to reject the employer’s offer as it does not advance their interests or address their economic hardship. The PSA is still considering available options, noting that the employer has not demonstrated a willingness to address the impasse.

Whilst industrial action is a strong possibility, the PSA remains hopeful that the employer consider realities as most unions are likely to reject the tabled offer. The PSA expects the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council to convene an urgent meeting for the employer to revise its offer, failing which, agitated workers will no longer be able to tolerate their employer’s disrespect.