WAGE NEGOTIATIONS
THETO MAHLAKOANA: State tramples on public servants’ rights as talks face deadlock
The government is trampling on the rights of its employees as it belatedly tries to take a second bite at negotiating a wage settlement. Much noise will be made in coming weeks about what should have been done to avoid deadlock, as all indications are that this is where the public sector wage talks are headed. By then, the series of errors the government has committed, plunging the talks into crisis, will be old news and strike talks by public sector workers will take centre stage. Had the state stuck to processes it agreed to at the inception of the talks, which are provided for in the Labour Relations Act, it wouldn’t have ended up like this. When the public sector wage negotiations started in September 2017, there was hope among the technocrats and trade unionists responsible for the difficult process that perhaps on this occasion a conclusion would be reached before the state’s financial year end.That would have meant that by April 1 public servants would have received their wag...
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