State plans to get value for its money, says Sisulu
THE state was paying an additional R17.1bn on its wage bill after an agreement for a 7% wage increase with public sector unions for the year, and was planning to get value for its money, Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said yesterday.
The state’s bloated wage bill, which stood at R317bn with the increase, was unsustainable given the rate of economic growth, but the multiyear wage agreement saw the state and labour reaching a considerable compromise.
The state gave in to a 7% wage increase after entering negotiations with an offer of 4% in February.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan had budgeted for a 5% increase in public sector wages.
A huge concession by labour was its agreement to a multiyear contract, which it had vehemently opposed at the start of the talks.
This meant that parties would not return to the negotiating table before 2015. It was intended to ensure that public servants would not down tools for the next three years.
The three-year agreement, said Ms Sisulu, would allow the state to plan ahead, and in the next round of negotiations, in 2015, it would ensure that the government was better placed to “ensure that we can get value for money from what we are negotiating. We have given in good will the 7%, laying a basis for workers where we can actually now demand that we will have value for money,” she said.
The state had made a commitment to assess the salary structures, starting with teachers. Ms Sisulu said once salary structures were corrected, the government could put pressure on its workers to perform.
However, the status quo on wage negotiations would remain; it would not be linked to the performance or the productivity of workers. “My job as minister is to ensure that we get that quality of work that we expect. The productivity that we expect is actually cemented in the public service itself … so if we can do more it has nothing to do with the wages.”
A service charter or accord would be signed by the end of next month to ensure that service improved. “This kicks off a very important journey that we now need to take with public servants. Together with the public servants we need to say to the country that no more would we have to endure bad service,” she said.
Unions negotiated on behalf of nurses, teachers, doctors, police officers and a range of other public sector workers.
The chief negotiator for Congress of South African Trade Union affiliates, Mugwena Maluleke, said unions were not entirely happy with the agreement, but had accepted it.
The chief negotiator for the state, Melissa Ntshikila, said the focus during the negotiations — which the minister described as “difficult and protracted” — was on meeting workers’ financial needs, but also to assert the employer’s right to fulfil its role to provide improved services to the citizens of the country.
After three years, when parties head back to the negotiating table, the state would examine its progress over that period.
“If employees want to make demands, this must be born out by the productivity that is very clear in terms of the work that they are performing, so we would want to say to teachers if the argument is that you are not being remunerated, we will do all of those things. In return, these are the kinds of expectations that we have,” Ms Ntshikila said.
“If we see employees are not performing, they have to be held accountable for that. If they are performing, then there must be no reason why those workers should not share in the productivity gains.”