By Umamah Bakharia

The Constitutional Court ruled against the public sector trade unions after attempting to force the government to honour a 2020 wage agreement.

The ConCourt together with the Labour Appeal Court found that the agreement was unlawful.

However, the result has come as a shock to the unions which would have seen R75.6 billion in back pay as well as salary increases going forward.

Radio Islam speaks to the Executive Director at the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa (NAPTOSA), Basil Manuel on the wage increase.

“We are indeed concerned by the ruling, we respect that is it the highest court in the country and we will abide by that but of course, this also puts a big question mark on collective bargaining not only in the public service but in every bargaining council,” says Manuel.

According to Manuel, NAPTOSA along with other unions signed a three-year salary increase agreement which ended in 2020. This led to the employer stating that there were no funds available to honour the deal.

“In our understanding, a collective agreement becomes part of the extension on NRA and so we wanted to ensure that happens, and that is why we approached the courts,” says Manuel.

The outcome at the Constitutional Court indicated that the parties that signed the agreement did not have the full mandate to do so.

However, NAPTOSA argues that the ministers of finance and the department of public service were both involved in the agreement.

“We had no idea of knowing that the full mandate wasn’t given,” says Manuel.

He advises that collective bargainers check the full mandates before they sign agreements that have a possibility of backfiring.

A public service round table is scheduled soon that will evaluate the roles and impact of both the employer and unions.