03 Feb 2014

The Public Service Bargaining Council (PSBC) is scheduled to begin public service salary negotiations on February 6. The council had earlier convened on January 27, where they continued with normal business and paved the way for negotiations.

In an interview, acting general secretary of the PSBC, Mr Willard Ulaula expressed optimism that the council would no longer have to reschedule meetings because of failure to form a quorum, as they had managed to appoint eight alternate members for each government representative in the council. “The issue of the council failing to form a quorum will no longer arise because all parties will be represented from now onwards,” he said.

In the past the PSBC failed to meet a quorum because some of the representatives from the two negotiating parties failed to honour meetings.

For his part, Mr Tobokani Rari, deputy chairperson of the PSBC, said the salary negotiation process had been tedious and daunting because of lack of commitment by the employer. He said there was an urgent need for a public service salary increment as civil servants had not had any meaningful adjustment in the past six years, which greatly affected their purchasing power.

Meanwhile, a news release from the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) indicated that government had filled two vacant posts of its representatives in the PSBC with effect from January 21. The appointment of the two restored the number of government representatives in the council to eight.

The new appointments followed resignation of Mr Tefo Bogosi and Dr Raphael Dingalo who left the public service. “Filling of these posts therefore means that government now has eight representatives and eight alternate members in the council,” stated the release.

The release further stated that for some time government was unable to fill in the position of the alternate members, in line with the requirement of the law that the representatives must have alternates of an equal number. The council operates on a 50/50 representation from government and recognised public service trade unions.

The PSBC was established by section 50 and 51 of the Public Service Act to negotiate between the employer and public service unions.  ENDS