Public servants to receive non-pensionable cash allowance

From Thursday, public servants are set to receive a non-pensionable cash allowance, the Department of Public Service and Administration has confirmed.

Cash allowance

Government has reached the statutory majority for the number of public-sector unions that have accepted its wage offer, after prolonged negotiations at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in July.

The agreement was reached after government reneged on paying salary increases for the final year of a three-year wage deal signed in 2018, which set it on a coalition course with public-sector unions that threatened strike and legal action.

According to the department, public servants will now be receiving a cash allowance of between R1,200 and R1,695.

This includes the back pay to April 2021.

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The deal also included a 1.5% wage increase for employees who did not qualify for a pensionable increase.

“It should be noted that the Department of Public Service and Administration is also still busy with the implementation of the non-pensionable cash allowance for part-time employees. This will be finalised as soon as possible.

“The date for the implementation of the 1.5% pensionable increase which was also provided for in the Resolution 1 of 2021, will be announced soon,” Public Service and Administration director-general Yoliswa Makhasi said in a statement.

Makhasi added that the non-pensionable cash allowance would be paid by no later than 20 September for members of the South African Police Service (Saps).

Unions that accepted the wage offer during the July negotiations included the Public Servants Association (PSA) and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa), the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) and the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) and the Health & Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa (Hospersa).

Meanwhile, National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) and the South African Policing Union (Sapu) have rejected the offer.

The PSA, which represents 230,000 public servants, said at time that it regarded government’s interim wage offer as a temporary measure in the absence of no agreement being reached on their other salary demands related to a housing allowance and medical aid.

Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe