Salary And Wage Negotiations For Municipal Employees SALGA Tables Final Offer Of 6.6% To Municipal Trade Unions

Posted: 18 April 2018

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At the end of the 4th and final round of salary and wage negotiations for municipal employees held from 16-18 April 2018 in Durban, SALGA tabled a final offer of 6,6% supplemented by inflation linked increases in the outer years of a three (3 year) wage deal. The final offer was presented by SALGA with a view of seeking to secure an agreement with the unions at the negotiating table.

The trade unions formally recorded their revised offer of 8% across the board, a minimum wage of R7393.00 and significantly above inflation increases for year two (2) and three (3) of the agreement. The unions further demanded that employees whose income is regarded as too low to access mortgage finance but also too high to qualify for RDP housing, should receive a non-pensionable allowance of R378.00. Over and above this, the unions also demanded that the threshold for this category of employees should be elevated from R8000.00 to R15 000.00. Included in their demand is an upward monetary and percentage adjustment to the current homeowner allowance as well as the medical aid subsidy year on year by the same level of salary increases.

The effect of the demands by the unions will increase the current municipal wage bill from R87.3 billion to R94.9 billion.

Upon tabling their final positions and in an attempt to reach a negotiated settlement and take parties out of the impasse in negotiations, the parties have thus resolved to go back to their constituencies to seek a mandate on the proposed agreement put together by the facilitator appointed to oversee these negotiations.

The main elements of the facilitator proposal can be summarised as follows: 

•    An across the board 7% salary & wage increase with effect from 1 July 2018.
•    Employees who earn a basic salary of R9000.00 per month or less shall receive a further 0.5% increase with effect from 1 January 2019.
•    The minimum wage, the homeowner's allowance, and the medical aid employer contribution will be adjusted by the percentage of salary increases for the 3-year duration of the salary and wage agreement.
•    The Non-Pensionable Allowance for the GAP market employees will remain unchanged from its current level of R350 and will only be adjusted in year two (2) and year three (3) of the agreement by the same percentage as the salary and wage increase applicable for those years.
•    The parties further resolved to conclude the retirement fund restructuring process in a separate collective agreement.