Reports that up to 235 000 civil servants belonging to the Public Servant’s Association were about to go on strike got me thinking – will the public even notice their absence?
There is a strong perception among that civil servants are AWOL from their duties and responsibilities, even when they are physically present at their respective workplaces. As an aside, is the term civil servants an oxymoron of note? My experience is that public sector employees are rarely civil or servant-like.
There is no argument that public service workers are exposed to the economic vagaries that most salaried employees are exposed to. The difference is that they are better able to withstand them due to the very generous terms and conditions written into their agreements – either explicitly, or through interpretation.
Let’s take the impact the Covid pandemic had on workers. While the private sector shed jobs or reduced working hours dramatically, state employees, including the PSA members poised to strike were immune. Those that were sent home during the hard lockdowns were notionally still on duty.
The reality is that very few government departments had the resources or infrastructure to enable even a tiny percentage of line employees to continue to deliver any services from home.
There were isolated opportunities to contact senior managers, but their ability to assist customers was limited. The private sector, by contrast, enabled their employees working from home to access company mainframes and resources to continue servicing clients.
So, essentially, the majority of state workers were on a paid holiday. Frustratingly, certain state agencies such as the Road Accident Fund have maintained the Covid operation model to this day.
Then we have the situation with water and electricity outages. Most government offices send staff home when there are water outages, rendering service delivery to zero.
The same with loadshedding – it is not unusual to see entire departments closed during loadshedding, either because back-up generators are non-operational or non-existent. There is no salary consequence or penalty for these incidents.
Private sector employees do not enjoy an iota of this perk, losing entire days, or weeks of salary if essential services are not available.
So, in rejecting the 3% offer the State has tabled (excluding the cash gratuity) these employees are blithely ignoring the significant benefits they derive by being public servants.
If one had to take the time to quantify the actual value of the salaries earned during Covid and service outages, there is no doubt that it would far exceed the nominal amount tabled.
It is nonsensical for unions to assert that purely because a certain time span had passed (let’s assume a year), that employees were entitled to a wage increase.
Surely the output of their members in the period under question and the comparative situation of their colleagues in the private sector should be considered.
Ubuntu be damned!
Vijay Naidoo is the CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum. He writes in his personal capacity. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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