Representatives of JCTU`s participating affiliates also signed the document, which will cover about 50% of public sector workers. The case continues for nearly a month after the government managed to reach a wage agreement with most of the unions on the Public Service Coordinating Council. Judge Isaac Madondo had asked Van Wyk if he thought the entire agreement should be repealed if a clause was found to be illegal, and Van Wyk agreed. But, he added, Nupsaw fears the consequences if the deal is deemed invalid. The Director-General thanked those responsible for the service they continue to provide and for changing the lives of citizens, especially the poorest of the poor, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. For more information, please contact:Moses MushiCell: 082 972 6595E-mail: mosesm@dpsa.gov.za He said this has led to a decline in revenue inflows and that the government is not in a position to start implementing the proposed public sector compensation review this year, as originally planned. Nehawu`s lawyer, attorney William Mokhare, SC, told the judges that the deal could not be considered outside of the Industrial Relations Act and the Constitution, otherwise the hearing would “continue to ask the wrong questions.” The opposing parties discussed the interpretation of article 172 of the Constitution, which allows for the temporary suspension of a declaration of invalidity, and article 23 of the Industrial Relations Act, which refers to fair labour practices. The government has reached an agreement with a majority of unions representing civil servants to end the “marathon” of wage negotiations. Finance and Public Service Minister Nigel Clarke and JCTU President Helene Davis Whyte signed the agreement on Friday (29 October) at a brief ceremony at the ministry in Kingston. The government said that due to its wider budgetary constraints and the fact that the 2018 public wage deal pushed spending beyond the R110 billion spending framework, the deal had become unaffordable in the third year and should be considered invalid.
The government and the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) have signed a new 12-month agreement on a four per cent wage increase for an estimated 50,000 public sector workers for the period from April 2021 to March 2022. Lawyer Ngwako Maenetje, who represents the South African Democratic Teachers` Union (Sadtu), the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) and the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa, said, as noted by the government, that the funds to be paid were not the responsibility of the unions or the collective agreement. He stressed that the government is ready to make payments for this year to other public sector workers by December “if we can reach agreements with the remaining [bargaining] groups.” In addition, said lawyer Pedro van Wyk of the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw), there is concern that if the agreement is found invalid, it could lead to a catastrophic situation in which the government “sues all civil servants” for the part of the agreement that the government has respected for the first two years. The government argued that it could not afford to comply with the agreement due to budgetary constraints. The Director General said that wage negotiations are now over and a collective agreement has been reached that includes two components: a non-pensionable cash allowance, which will come into effect from April 1, 2021, as follows: He stressed that this new “holding agreement” provides the “bridge” that allows the government to work enthusiastically with the JCTU and other unions, who represent public sector workers to cooperate. has not yet signed the document to begin implementing the compensation review. As a representative of the PSA, lawyer Chris Orr said that the Minister of Public Service and Administration can make a salary decision in consultation with the Minister of Finance, but that does not necessarily require the approval of the Minister of Finance. “We want to work with other unions and parties to collective bargaining to accelerate the conclusion of bargaining for this year so that we can make the deeper, more fundamental and structural changes that will improve the public sector work experience,” he added. Dr Clarke said the deal was “significant” in the context of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which led to an economic decline of 10% for the 2020 calendar year and just under 11% for the 2020/21 financial year.
“It is recommended to consult the measures taken by the unions on the cuts, but their consent is not required by law. The government has told the unions that it will implement cost-cutting measures, but the analysis before that is the government`s job, not the unions`,” Maenetje said. Maenetje said the DPSA argued for non-compliance with the 2018 agreement largely on the basis that it was unaffordable, but without clarity on the success of cost-cutting measures in unlocking funding. In her remarks, Ms Davis Whyte said the provisions of the agreement “represent the best we could have achieved [COVID-19] under the circumstances”. .
