{"id":11635,"date":"2012-06-19T23:35:33","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T21:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/s-africa-calls-unions-back-to-talks-on-pay-increases\/"},"modified":"2012-06-19T23:35:33","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T21:35:33","slug":"s-africa-calls-unions-back-to-talks-on-pay-increases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/s-africa-calls-unions-back-to-talks-on-pay-increases\/","title":{"rendered":"S.Africa calls unions back to talks on pay increases"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Peroshni Govender<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

PRETORIA, June 19<\/span> (Reuters) – A South African minister on
\nTuesday called unions representing about 1.3 million state
\nworkers back to negotiations over pay increases, seeking to
\navert a strike that could shut down hospitals and schools.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But Lindiwe Sisulu, minister of public administration, also
\nsaid any wage increase above the government’s current 6.5
\npercent offer would add to the debt of the national budget.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Wages for government employees are the largest sector of
\nstate spending, usually costing an amount equal to more than 40
\npercent of tax revenue. Talks over pay increases broke down last
\nweek, raising the threat of a strike.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The state of our global economy, the reality of our own
\nlimited budget, our own credit rating and credibility make me
\nhope and believe that labour and ourselves as government have no
\nappetite for a dispute and worse a strike,” Sisulu told a news
\nconference.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa had originally budgeted for a 5 percent
\nincrease but was forced to increase its offer as inflation has
\ninched up in the past months, hitting 6.1 percent in April.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Sisulu said the 6.5 percent offer would swell spending and
\ncost the government about 10 billion rand ($1.2 billion) more
\nthan had already been set aside.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

South Africa would have to dip into its reserves if unions
\nrejected the offer, she said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The two sides are not far apart, after unions dropped their
\nlatest demand of an 8 percent increase and appear willing to
\naccept just over 7 percent – the inflation rate plus 1 percent,
\nunion sources said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

But since there are so many government employees, small
\nincreases add up quickly. A perk to provide civil servants with
\nabout $100 a month to help them with housing costs the country
\nas much as it pays each year to run its court system.
\n($1 = 8.3383 South African rand)<\/p>\n

(Editing by Jon Herskovitz and Alessandra Rizzo)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Peroshni Govender PRETORIA, June 19 (Reuters) – A South African minister on Tuesday called unions representing about 1.3 million state workers back to negotiations over pay increases, seeking to avert a strike that could shut down hospitals and schools. But Lindiwe Sisulu, minister of public administration, also said any wage increase above the government’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11635\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}