Johannesburg - Government employees who joined the national shutdown on Wednesday will lose out on a day’s pay next month, the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) announced.
DPSA director-general Yoliswa Makhasi informed all heads of national and provincial departments that public servants who are part of the nationwide shutdown by trade union federations, Cosatu and the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), must not be paid for the day or hours they stayed away from work.
In addition, essential service workers were not allowed to participate in strikes and/or protest action during working hours and if they took part their participation constitutes misconduct.
”The principle of ‘no work, no pay’ must be applied by departments. The principle should apply for absence of a full day as well as part of a working day,” Makhasi wrote ahead of the national shutdown.
She further warned that departments that do not effect deductions will be in violation of the Public Finance Management Act.
”‘No work, no pay’ must be effected in the month of the protest, if possible, but not later than the next month after the protest action,” added Makhasi.
Leave is not allowed to be granted for the purpose of participation in strikes and/or protest action and that it should only be approved in terms of leave regulations and not for protest action, according to Makhasi’s letter.
Cosatu is demanding that public servants be paid what is due to them, a better salary offer on a baseline that is not less than 10%, National Treasury to reverse all austerity measures in the public service, and all vacant positions to be filled and the employment of qualified graduates to beef up the public service as well as that no state-owned enterprise must be privatised.
According to Cosatu, it also wants private companies to be prohibited from retrenching their employees in order to maximise profits.
Instead, the country’s biggest trade union federation is also demanding that companies be forced to create a certain number of jobs every year and compliance to be monitored by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
Cosatu also wants existing laws to be amended to restrict lay-offs to insolvent companies.
”Government should bailout these companies by injecting equity capital in order to curb the increase in unemployment,” the federation stated.
In response at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), the government’s representatives could not agree on the demand to prohibit retrenchments motivated by profit maximisation and asked to be allowed to seek a mandate from their principals and engage business.
Saftu was also given the green light by Nedlac to embark on its protest action across all nine provinces and all cities in the country.