Former Tshwane MMC for finance Jacqui Uys has issued a warning to the new political administration under Mayor Nasiphi Moya to prioritise financial stability and avoid failing to pay workers' salaries.
This caution comes as Moya's administration seeks to honour salary increments for 2021 and 2023, which has been a point of contention with labour unions.
The dispute revolves around a three-year salary and wage collective agreement signed in 2021, promising salary increases of 3.5% in 2021/22, 4.9% in 2022/23, and 5.4% in 2023/24.
The City under former mayor Cilliers Brink reneged on the agreement, leading to a Labour Court case scheduled for November 28.
Uys pointed out that paying salary increases without ensuring financial sustainability would only lead to short-term gains, followed by potential long-term financial struggles.
She urged MMC of Finance Eugene Modise, who is also deputy Mayor, to focus on the City's financial recovery and avoid commitments that might hinder progress.
The unions - the South African Municipal Workers Union and Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union - have taken the City to the Labour Court over an unfulfilled collective wage agreement signed in 2021.
The Brink administration deemed the agreement to be unaffordable and as a result made an exemption application at the SA Local Government Bargaining Council on April 8, 2022 to excuse itself from the deal.
The City’s application was dismissed, but the ruling was subsequently overturned in the August 24, 2022 arbitration ruling.
The arbitration ruling effectively gave the greenlight to the City’s move for a review application challenging the April 8 verdict in the Labour Court.
Uys said: “The DA, when in government, deemed salary increments for the 2021 and 2023 financial years unaffordable. This decision was, at the time, supported by both the ANC and ActionSA. We urge the Moya/Modise administration to continue with the Labour Court cases exempting the City from the wage agreements made by the Bargaining council for those periods.”
She said there would be no benefit to be gained by workers if salary increases “are paid one month, just to have the City rendered unable to make payroll the next month”.
She said Modise needs to keep eyes on the financial recovery of the City when negotiating to reach a settlement on historical wage disputes with the unions.
“The financial performance of the City for the first quarter of the financial year, under the DA government, showed improvement. But the improvement the DA-led coalition delivered is now at risk. The new Moya/Modise-administration needs to build on this momentum and not enter into financial commitments that will hamstring the progress,” Uys said.
Pretoria News