“As a union, we hope that the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) will come to the third round of wage negotiations sober and with an improved offer for the country’s municipal workers,” said SAMWU National Media Office Papikie Mohale in an interview with Tshwane Talks on Tuesday afternoon.
Mohale’s sentiments stem from the fact that both SAMWU and SALGA are in a deadlock regarding salary increases that are due to municipal workers countrywide.
SALGA is a representative organisation for local municipalities in South Africa while SAMWU represents municipal workers countrywide.
Mohale revealed that the 257 municipalities in the country currently employ 300 000 workers and that SAMWU represents about 160 000 of them.
The wage negotiations started in early July 2024 and didn’t produce an outcome that satisfied both parties.
A second round of negotiations was then held and ended at the end of July this year with another impasse between the negotiators.
“The third round of negotiations is scheduled for 12-16 August in KwaZulu Natal Province and if there is no resolution there, then parties will then go to a dispute resolution phase which will include conciliation by the South African Local Government Bargaining Council,” explained Mohale as he responded to questions regarding the possibility of a strike pertaining to the never-ending wage negotiations between SAMWU and SALGA.
“We need to also add that the current offer on the table by SALGA has been rejected by our members and we therefore hope that there will be an improved wage offer that addresses the challenges faced by the country’s municipal workers,” said Mohale.
He also pointed out that SALGA had tried to exclude the City of Tshwane from the collective national wage increase bargaining process, claiming that it was an ailing municipality which can’t collect its revenues and pay its debt.
“But the attempt to exempt City of Tshwane from paying wage increases was rejected by SAMWU as the officials of the City of Tshwane themselves announced earlier this year that they were willing to pay Tshwane workers a 5,1% salary increase,” explained Mohale.
Be that as it may, Mohale pointed out that the 5,1% increase offered by the City of Tshwane will only be accepted if it is in line with the outcome of the collective wage negotiations agreement that SAMWU is currently involved in with SALGA at national level.
SALGA is offering workers an increase of 3,75% after opening negotiations with a 3,3% offer, while SAMWU is currently demanding an 8% salary increase.
SALGA wants its 3,7% wage increase to run for a period of 5 years, and this is something that SAMWU has described as laughable.
Referring to City of Tshwane’s failure to pay wage increases to its workers for two years, Mohale said the following:
“We are not willing to forfeit the increase owed by City of Tshwane to its workers, the matter is currently at the Labour Court and Tshwane Metro must pay those workers.”