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DENOSA strongly condemns the behaviour of public sector employer
Media statement
Friday, 12 June 2015
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) condemns in the strongest terms the provocative behaviour of the employer during this round of public sector wage negotiations, and we call on government heads to provide leadership before things turn sour.
DENOSA warns that this behaviour shows lack of appreciation for its employees and may demoralise employees further than they are already in the public service.
The latest action by the employer to unilaterally implement its own 6.4% instead of the agreed 7% wage adjustment is a sign of sheer arrogance and a dissipating culture of respect for collective bargaining. Nurses of this country are offended by this latest development, and they are angry.
Government has thousands of vacancies that are not filled and more vacancies get created because public sector employees resign amass. The few staff complements in the public sector are expected to carry the entire load, often at the expense of their well-being. In the case of health professionals, the nurses who are finishing their community service in various provinces are being issued with release letters, meaning that they won’t be absorbed into the system – they will be sitting at home doing nothing yet they have been enrolled by government yet they have been registered by the South African Nursing Council (SANC) as professionals.
All this points to poor HR planning by government, plus the austerity measure that Treasury declared in both his Mid-Term Budget Policy Statement in October last year and during his budget speech early this year, where he said funding for positions that have been vacant for some time will be withdrawn.
All this lethargy by government as the employer to deal with its own internal inefficiencies swiftly reflects badly on the authenticity of government’s intention to decrease employment rate in this country where it is the highest amongst youth. The harsh consequences of this lack of action are that the face of government (nurses, doctors, teachers, police, clerks and general workers) are confronted on a daily basis by desperate community members who are in need of service.
The evidence for this is the fact that fully qualified nurses are seating at home while their help is most needed by a population that is increasingly getting sick and needs urgent attention.
The employer has effected a 6.4% wage adjustment for the 2015/16 period despite the new agreement clearly stating 7% adjustment. The unions are dismayed and angered by this latest instigating trick by government, which is the behaviour that has long characterised government throughout the seven-month long public sector wage negotiations.
On 1 June 2015, PSCBC convened an urgent special council meeting after the leakage of a government (DPSA) Circular 1 of 2015. The circular was talking about implementing 6.4% instead of 7% as agreed by parties in Resolution 2 of 2015 (see summary of the resolution 2 of 2015 below). In that meeting, labour was informed that the 6.4% had already been loaded to the government payment system and ready for implementation.
Subsequently, the meeting resolved that the 6.4% implementation must be put on hold until there is a legal opinion about clause 3.6 of Resolution 1 of 2012, which ended on 31 March 2015. However, labour has learnt that the 6.4% has not been reversed and that there is no directive from government principals to reverse the implementation of 6.4%. This unilateral implementation is the last straw that labour cannot accept under any circumstances and regards it as the regrettable provocation of a special type.
The new agreement, which replaces the previous agreement that ended on 31 March 2015, has no clause that talks of the previous CPIX projections and this has never been part of the recently concluded negotiations.
In summary, the agreement, which is resolution 2 of 2015 of PSCBC, is as follows:
Salary Increment on Multi – Term
The salary increment for 2015 is 7% with effect from 1 April 2015.
The salary increment for 2016 is CPI + 1% with effect from 1 April 2016.
The salary increment for 2017 is CPI + 1% with effect from 1 April 2017.
Government Employees Housing Scheme (GEHS)
Housing Allowance is increased from R900 to R1200 (R300) for the people repaying the bond with the annual CPI increase from 2017. People who are not paying the bond will continue receiving the monthly R900 and the R300 will be put on savings as a future deposit when they are ready to buy a house.
Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS)
The increase will be 28.5% with effect from 1 January 2015. The future increase in contribution by the state will be based on Medical Price Index (MPI). This means that if the medical aid increases by 10%, the state contribution will also increase by 10% (proportional increase).
The above intransigence from the employer has left labour with no other option but to distance itself from government’s unilateral action of breaching the agreement on its first action of implementing it.
As unions, we have not agreed on 6.4% wage adjustment for the 2015/16 period, and are not going to witness the contravention of the agreed and signed 7% adjustment for the same period agreement.
Our next call of action is to embark on report-back sessions with our members about employer’s unilateral implementation of what was not agreed upon, and we will take the way forward from those report-back sessions.
End
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
For more information, contact:
Simon Hlungwani, DENOSA President
Mobile: 079 501 4922
Email: simon.mlomgani@gmail.com
Or
Sibongiseni Delihlazo, DENOSA Communications Manager
Mobile: 079 875 2663
Email: sibongisenid@denosa.org.za
Website: www.denosa.org.za
Facebook: DENOSA National Page
Twitter: @DENOSAORG
