Cosatu, Saftu blast govt plan to trim public sector wage bill

The battle lines have been drawn between the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and government as the trade union federation rejects government’s plans to trim the public sector wage bill.

Speaking at a press conference at Cosatu House yesterday, general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said government’s continuous attack on public servants was nonsensical. He suggested cuts to salaries of executive and management posts, which had become one of the largest components of government spending in the past 10 years.

“Cosatu rejects government’s narrow fixation with the public service wage bill. We view this provocative budget as a challenge from the National Treasury and we accept it,” said Ntshalintshali.

The wage cuts directed at the public service would have severe implications for the economy.

“Poorer regions rely disproportionately on public service employment and cutting wages of public servants will intensify poverty and regional inequalities in South Africa.”

Ntshalintshali said the cuts also had severe gender implications because the public service had been an important source of jobs for women. He said women accounted for a greater proportion of public servants and a sizeable majority of teachers.

“So a cut in wages will reverse the gains that have been made to close the existing gender inequalities.”

Political analyst Somadoda Fikeni said the relationship between Cosatu and the ANC was much healthier now than it was during the Zuma years. However, due to the economic realities facing the country, it was becoming more strained.

“Some hard decisions have to be taken, such as the public service wage bill which has ballooned over the years, as well as the job cuts which Cosatu is not happy about,” said Fikeni.

He said public service wage cuts would put Cosatu and the ANC at loggerheads as they represented different interests.

“[They] would never be in the interest of Cosatu as it would lose its standing in the alliance, with diminishing numbers of workers,” he explained.

According to general secretary of the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) Zwelinzima Vavi, public sector wage cuts effectively placed the working class and the poorest of the poor in the frying pan.

“We reiterate, it is not the working class that has created the economic havoc, but the greed of the capitalist class. For example, they borrowed money they did not have to create financial bubbles, leading to the world economic crisis of 2008-09, and forced the state to borrow even more to bail out the bankers,” said Vavi.

He said it was not the working class that destroyed the state-owned enterprises, but the government’s managerial “deployees”.

Massive cuts in public expenditure and public investment would not grow the economy.

“Saftu condemns in the strongest terms possible the cutting of R160 billion over the medium term.

“Government has the gall to suggest that it will even pull out of the existing pathetic agreement it rammed down the throats of the public servants, who are members of unions.”

– gcinan@citizen.co.za

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