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Greek lawmakers have approved a new round of drastic austerity measures after a long day of street battles between police and protesters left dozens injured.
Cape Town - Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has told public servants the salary increases they received in 2009 (up to 13%) placed a significant strain on the economy, warning them they won't be so lucky this year.
Tabling his maiden Budget on Wednesday, Gordhan told parliament that government's wage bill has almost doubled in five years.
"Now that a major revision of public service remuneration is behind us (including the required adjustments for professionals), it will be necessary to moderate salary increases going forward.
"This is required to ensure that funds are also available for growth in the public service and so that spending on school books, hospital buildings and maintenance of infrastructure is not compromised," said Gordhan.
About 1.2 million people are employed by government, which makes up 9% of total employment. The major categories are education (40%), health (22%), policing (15%), defence (6%) and correctional services (3%).
Public servants received salary increases of between 6% and 13% last year. Higher-than-budgeted-for increases took R12bn off government's bottom line, while the cost of the occupation-specific dispensations in education, health and correctional services cost a further R13bn.
- Fin24.com