South African labour unions have rejected a government proposal to review planned increases for civil servants days before they were due to be implemented.<\/p>\n
The Public Servants Association, which represents 230,000 government workers, said the state on Tuesday asked to review the last leg of a three-year pay agreement because it couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is due to announce the annual budget on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing of the proposal, a few days before the adjustments were due to be implemented, speaks of a government that regards public servants as an easy target to resolve its financial woes,\u201d the PSA said.<\/p>\n
Pushing the proposals through in the budget speech will be seen \u201cas a declaration of war,\u201d the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the country\u2019s biggest labor federation, said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, Cosatu said the government is seeking to cut 30,000 civil-servant\u00a0jobs\u00a0as Mboweni seeks to rein in government debt and get economic growth going.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CEC views this action by the government as a direct attack on collective bargaining, which will never be accepted,\u201d Cosatu said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis irresponsible and blatant act of provocation will seriously destabilize the public service and we warn the government to abandon this idea and give workers what is due to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freezing wages in the public sector could save as much as R128 billion ($8.4 billion) over the next three years, Barclays Plc economist Michael Kafe said in note dated Feb. 24.<\/p>\n
Barclay\u2019s base case scenario is that Treasury will only be able to save R7 billion over the period because the government lacks the political will to cut payroll costs before the ruling party\u2019s national general conference in June.<\/p>\n
The wage bill accounts for more than 35% of government spending.<\/p>\n