Cape Town: South African state workers, including teachers and nurses, began a nationwide strike yesterday after wage talks became deadlocked.
"We promised we were going to shut down the public service, outside of essential services," Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the largest labour federation, told reporters in Cape Town. "We did. Workers are supporting their legitimate demands."
On August 5, the government made what it said was its final pay proposal, offering to raise its 1.3 million employees' wages by 7 per cent and monthly housing allowances to 630 rand (Dh319.61) from 500 rand, backdated to July 1.
Adjustments to salary bands meant most workers would on average receive 9 per cent increases, Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi said.
Fourteen unions rejected the offer, demanding 8.6 per cent pay increases and housing allowances of 1,000 rand, backdated to April 1.
"We will be back at work tomorrow," Chris Klopper, chairman of the Independent Labour Caucus, which groups 10 unions representing about 460,000 workers, said by telephone from the capital Pretoria. "We will have a negotiating session later today" with the government and the outcome will determine whether labour action will be resumed, he said.
Thousands march
More than 10,000 people marched to parliament in Cape Town, carrying placards reading: "Say no to poverty wages" and "We demand 8.6 per cent." Between 30,000 and 50,000 people joined a peaceful protest in Pretoria, Klopper said. The Cape Town-based e News Channel put the number at 5,000.
The effect of the strike on hospitals and schools is still being assessed, Health Ministry spokesman Fidel Hadebe and Education Ministry spokesman Granville Whittle said in telephone interviews from Pretoria.
Rand decline
The rand posted its biggest decline in three weeks as the strike began, losing as much as 1 per cent to 7.2625 per dollar. The rand traded 0.8 per cent down at 7.2452 by 12:39pm in Johannesburg, from a previous close of 7.1900.
South African laws prevent strikes by certain categories of workers who provide essential services and account for about a third of state employees.
A four-week strike in June 2007 shut most schools and disrupted services at some hospitals, clinics and immigration offices, and led the government to deploy troops to quell violent protests.
