Johannesburg, Monday 14 March 2022: The South African Communist Party (SACP) has studied the judgment delivered by the Constitutional Court in the dispute affecting the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council’s Resolution 1 of 2018, on public service and administration salary increases.

When the matter was referred to the courts system, the SACP cautioned against relegating engagements and afterwards consistently underlined the importance of resolving this matter through negotiations. Labour relations matters of this nature require social dialogue, consensus-seeking engagement, instead of being left to the courts.

Our reading of the judgment confirms the concerns we raised, looking at the wider implications of the dispute beyond the legalistic parameters.

Therefore, we are calling FOR further engagement between the government and the public sector unions on the more fundamental challenge of the public sector wage bill which, we believe, is at the heart of the dispute.

The matter of the public sector wage bill needs to be taken up further at the Alliance level as well. The SACP has raised this matter before and will continue to raise it at the Alliance level, taking into account its wider implications.

We also believe that the dispute underlines the urgency and importance of convening the Alliance Economic Summit.

The SACP is calling for wider worker unity and a progressive trade union front to take forward the common interests of workers not only regarding the public service and administration wage dispute but also regarding the broader struggle for structural economic transformation. The two are inextricably interlinked.  

The SACP reaffirms its support for the protection of collective bargaining in our country. Unilateral action by the government and employers in the private sector constitutes a serious threat to the hard-won collective bargaining system.