COSATU AND FEDUSA ESCALATE GEMS FIGHT AS 9.5% MEDICAL AID HIKE
DEVOURS PUBLIC SERVANTS’ WAGES.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Federation of Unions
of South Africa (FEDUSA) are escalating their fight against the 9.5% GEMS
contribution increase, warning that the scheme’s refusal to heed organised labour’s
demands is pushing public servants deeper into financial distress at a time when the
cost of living is already unbearable.
Far from responding to the outcry from workers, GEMS has dismissed the central
demands raised by organised labour. These included a reversal of the 2026 increase,
meaningful engagement with labour, transparency on the basis for the hikes, and an
approach that recognises the deep affordability crisis facing public servants. Instead,
GEMS has carried on as if the anger and hardship of workers count for nothing.
COSATU and FEDUSA wish to make it clear that this campaign has not stopped.
GEMS ignored it. If anything, the urgency is now greater. Public servants have just
received salary increases of 4%, but for many workers that adjustment is not even
visible in their pockets. It has already been swallowed by the exorbitant GEMS
increase. Workers who had hoped for even the slightest relief are finding that what
came in through one hand has been taken out through the other.
This is happening in the middle of a punishing cost of living crisis. Food prices remain
high. Transport costs continue to bite. Electricity is unaffordable for millions. Debt is
tightening its grip on working households. In this context, a 9.5% medical aid increase
is not an ordinary administrative matter. It is a direct blow to workers’ income, their
dignity and their access to healthcare.
This campaign is also becoming bigger than GEMS alone. COSATU and FEDUSA are
taking a stand against the rising cost of medical aid coverage in South Africa more
broadly. What is happening at GEMS reflects a wider crisis in which healthcare is
becoming unaffordable even for working people with jobs, leaving families to
downgrade cover, absorb impossible monthly increases, or fall out of private
healthcare altogether.
This is no longer only a GEMS issue. It is now a public issue about the rising cost of
staying healthy in South Africa. That is why COSATU and FEDUSA have now joined
hands in a united effort to force GEMS to reverse this increase. This is no longer a
matter that can be left to isolated outrage or piecemeal engagements. Organised
labour is consolidating its strength because public servants cannot be expected to
carry a burden this severe in silence, and because the broader question of healthcare
affordability can no longer be postponed.
Our preference remains a political, legal and negotiated resolution. But there must be
no misunderstanding. If those efforts do not produce a meaningful outcome, organised
labour is ready to mobilise for mass protest action that will bring the public service to
a standstill. Workers cannot be pushed to the wall and then told to accept it as normal.
GEMS must come to its senses. It cannot continue pricing workers out of healthcare
while pretending that the consequences are manageable. The current increase is
excessive, unjust and unsustainable, and must be reversed. COSATU and FEDUSA
will continue to intensify this joint campaign until GEMS is compelled to listen.
Issued jointly by COSATU and FEDUSA