Court dismissal of public sector wage hike could come back to bite SA’s citizens

The Constitutional Court’s dismissal of the public wage increase might have saved the economy billions of Rands, but this could come back to bite the country.

So say unions, who believe the apex court ruling would likely lead to public servants moonlighting and finding “side hustles”.

Public sector unions have all expressed anger and disappointment at the court’s ruling on Monday, which dismissed their bid for wage increases as per the 2018 Public Service Coordinated Bargaining Council agreement.

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Unions such as the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu), the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) have all said that the court did not consider that the department of public service administration had already given the go-ahead for increases.

Instead, the court sided with the state that the agreement would exceed the budget by R30.2 billion, which government said it could not afford.

While this might be good news for the country’s pockets, the only positive thing is that government will no longer have to worry about sourcing money to fund the wage increases, said economist Prof Bonke Dumisa.

According to Dumisa, the country has bigger financial things to worry about than funding public servants, who were not severely impacted by Covid, as they had managed to retain their jobs.

“This [public servants’ wage increase] is a non-issue and even workers themselves are hardly talking about it. It’s just a few who are hot under the collar. To use a painful word – these [unions] are being selfish. And to expose this, at certain places, like licencing centres: workers do not want to go in full-time because they are saying they have to observe Covid protocols,” Dumisa said.

“The civil servants in South Africa are the minority but in terms of their impact on the fiscus – it is a lot. And they are the only people who were still having jobs in 2020 while many people lost theirs.”

ConCourt decision could impact service delivery – unions

The Constitutional Court ruling will leave public servants having to find an extra source of income, meaning they would not be focusing on providing services to the country.

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said there are nurses who have registered with private hospitals for extra income, meaning they take time off as public servants to seek more money.

“There will be labour instability because the three-year agreements allowed governments and unions to sign, and [then] we have a period where we don’t have to negotiate. When we have annual negotiations, sooner or later, we are going to collide,” he said.

Pamla rubbished remarks of selfishness by Dumisa, stating that public servants were the ones at the pandemic frontline.

“I don’t take people who say that seriously. These are talking heads. We had essential workers hiding behind masks and sanitisers during the outbreak. We told those people to face a deadly pandemic with no vaccine when none of us knew how deadly it was going to be,” said Pamla

“Were correctional officers supposed to say they can’t interact with prisoners? Police are overworked and inadequate – the same with nurses.”

“Let’s look at the doctor-patient ratio in this country, and the teacher-pupil ratio in this country. The argument these people make are ideological and not informed by the country we live in which is populated by poor people,” Pamla said.

He said those who criticise the public sector wage increase are overlooking that government spends billions on consultants. 

“For the past ten years, government has been spending on average R25 billion on consultants and that has not improved service delivery. It has opened avenues for people to loot and steal,” said Pamla.

Government should consider household income

Despite the court’s decision saving government money, household income remains relatively low, meaning savings are low while the dependency ratio is high.

With the Ukraine and Russia conflict, commodity prices such as food and fuel are expected to increase, which will affect households, said economist at University of Johannesburg Peter Baur.

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“Government still has to be able to look at the fact that household income is low. Because we have these mitigating factors and escalating commodity prices, which are going to be inflationary, they will disrupt the distribution of income in the household. Instead of putting money into school fees, households will put money into food instead.”

“We have sectors like municipal managers who are receiving huge salaries but if you are talking about low-income workers, every rand and cent counts – and that falls into the security sector, health care and people like nurses and teachers,” said Baur.

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Cabinet ministers and director-generals wages not disputed

Asked whether top officials and cabinet ministers should also get a salary cut for the economy’s sake, Dumisa said this was a conversation government was not ready to have.

“People have been screaming about this and no one is listening or challenging it… It can be addressed, but there are certain things one cannot say in public on how easy it has been to have a bloated civil service bill. In 1994, when we moved into political freedom, a director general got a total cost to government salary of R250 000 per annum. Today, he on average earns over R1.8 million. That is where things went wrong,” he said.

But Baur disagrees, stating that those in top positions were specialists and should be paid accordingly.

“We can’t say that because then you leave people who are specialists in what they do and deserve a specialist salary. A teacher has a specialised skill, like police and nurses. We can be sensitive to unskilled workers because there is a lot of competition but they get paid really badly. I think in this case, we have to be sensitive to their needs,” said Baur.

rorisangk@citizen.co.za