Progress report on collective bargaining at level of PSCBC

Today, teachers and school based education personnel are closing for the December holidays. Today, our SADTU offices are also closing. We are saying SADTU offices because as leaders, we are expected to continue working as and when the need arises.

We take this opportunity to wish all of you and the staff of our mighty union a safe and enjoyable festive season.

The SADTU offices open on the 12 January 2015 at 08h30. We know that you will continue to defend our Union and the Revolution from populists, popstarism, demagogues and regime change agents masquerading as super revolutionaries. Let our members not be misled by revolutionary sounding slogans and long speeches because these are just agents of capitalism. Tell our members the truths as exposed at our 8th National Congress.

We attach the draft of the employer offer on the table that we are engaging as per the mandate we have received from the JMC and we shall continue to provide reports as we progress because the offer on the table is just an inflation adjustment and not a nominal increase which cannot be accepted.

Below we summarized the employer offer.

The Public Service Wage negotiations commenced at the PSCBC on the 10 December 2014 with the Employer tabling their offer as a response to the demands of Labour as tabled on the 30 September 2014.

Prior to the commencement of the negotiations, the Council embarked in pre-negotiations process on the 31 October 2014 with a view of narrowing down issues that may hinder the smooth process of negotiations.

One of the critical outcomes of the pre-negotiations process was an in principal agreement on the measure that will be used as a basis for real negotiations. The Council agreed that 5,8% Headline inflation of 2013/14 (Year-on-year) as determined by the Statistics South Africa would be used as a basis for the real negotiations. (i.e. This figure would have been used as zero point that brings all the parties to the break-even point).

The Employer tabled the 5.8% increase as their opening bid to start the process of negotiations.

The Employer, however tabled their offer on a multi-term basis as follows:

1.SALARY ADJUSTMENTS

  • The salary adjustment effective from 1 April 2015 will be based on the average projected CPI (5.8%) for the period 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016.
  • The salary adjustment effective from 1 April 2016 will be based on the average projected CPI for the period 1 April 2016 to 31 March 2017.
  • The salary adjustment effective from 1 April 2017 will be based on the average projected CPI for the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

2.MEDICAL AID

  • The medical aid contribution shall be adjusted by 17,6% (5,6% for 2012; 5,8% for 2013 & 6,2% for 2014). This is as a result of lack of adjustment on the medical aid contributions for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014.

3.PAYMENT OF THE 13TH CHEQUE

  • Employees would be given a once-off opportunity of electing the date on which they prefer their 13th cheque/service bonus to be paid with effect from 2015/16 financial year.

The negotiations will resume in the second week of January 2015.