Cape Town – A presidential review on public-sector wages has yet to get under way, after facing delays caused by a strike earlier this year by Sadtu and ongoing labour demands by the teachers’ union, the Minister of Public Service and Administration Lindiwe Sisulu told Parliament today.
President Jacob Zuma announced in his State of the Nation Address in February the setting up of the Presidential Public Service Remuneration Review Commission to ensure that public servants are remunerated fairly, with the review prioritising teachers.
Briefing the National Assembly’s portfolio committee on public service and administration on the progress of the review, Sisulu said at her last interaction with President Zuma, the President had advised her that the review commission should consider prioritising another sector, such as nursing, if an early settlement could not be made with Sadtu.
“I have put that to Sadtu and (they) will come back to me by tomorrow. If they are still insistent on their demands we will try another sector. We have prioritised them (teaching sector) because for us they are an essential sector,” said Sisulu.
The department had put aside R25 million to carry out the review and Sisulu said a proclamation had been prepared and would be gazetted as soon as the President is satisfied that labour problems around Sadtu had been attended to.
The commission is made up of eight commissioners and it is envisaged that the commission will complete its work over a period of eight months, with a further two months required to complete the final report.
Sisulu agreed with some committee members that her department was being over optimistic in expecting that the review would be completed within eight months.
However, she said the department needed to take advantage of the three-year wage agreement, which was signed last year and comes to an end next year.
Sisulu said the concerns that public-service unions were raising seemed legitimate, adding that a scientific measure had never been used by the public service to grade jobs and ensure that the state achieves value for money.
The review commission’s terms of reference include making recommendations on a fair, equitable and efficient remuneration system in the public service, while benchmarking public service remuneration with the market.
The commission will also consider general trends in salary level and the current pay progression and bonus scheme in terms of its capacity to maximise service delivery.
It will also look at measureable key performance indicators for the public service which can be used to evaluate the performance of both individuals and departments against salary levels. – SAnews.gov.za
