{"id":12323,"date":"2012-07-12T00:28:30","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T22:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/07\/south-africa-state-workers-declare-wage-dispute\/"},"modified":"2012-07-12T00:28:30","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T22:28:30","slug":"south-africa-state-workers-declare-wage-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-africa-state-workers-declare-wage-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa state workers declare wage dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG, July 11<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; South African public<br \/>\nservice unions declared a formal dispute with the government on<br \/>\nWednesday, raising the prospect of major industrial action in<br \/>\nAfrica&#8217;s biggest economy after months of wage negotiations.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Eight unions affiliated to the powerful Congress of South<br \/>\nAfrican Trade Unions (COSATU) said they had taken the decision<br \/>\nafter the government withdrew an enhanced offer of a 6.9 percent<br \/>\nwage increase and reverted to an earlier 6.7 percent.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The unions, whose members include teachers and health<br \/>\nworkers, are asking for a 7.9 percent hike.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Declaration of a dispute is the first step towards launching<br \/>\na strike.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In its February budget, the government allowed for a wage<br \/>\nincrease of only 5 percent for public servants, adding that a<br \/>\nhuge state salary bill was crowding out investment in<br \/>\ninfrastructure and other key productive sectors.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The government has faced hundreds of protests in poorer<br \/>\ncommunities and townships over problems with electricity, water,<br \/>\nsanitation, public transport and health and education services.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Chief union negotiator Mugwena Maluleke said a mediator<br \/>\nwould now have to be appointed in the wage dispute, with talks<br \/>\nexpected to last about 30 days.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In the event of &#8220;failure to find a solution, we will hit the<br \/>\nstreets,&#8221; he told a news conference.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the government cancelled a news conference<br \/>\ncalled to announce details of the &#8220;wage settlement&#8221; reached<br \/>\nbetween the two sides.<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Cosmas Butunyi; Editing by Ed Cropley\/Ruth<br \/>\nPitchford)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JOHANNESBURG, July 11 (Reuters) &#8211; South African public service unions declared a formal dispute with the government on Wednesday, raising the prospect of major industrial action in Africa&#8217;s biggest economy after months of wage negotiations. Eight unions affiliated to the powerful Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said they had taken the decision after [&hellip;]<\/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-12323","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\/12323","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=12323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}