Johannesburg - The Health and Other Service Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) has declared a wage dispute with both Netcare and Medicross, a subsidiary of listed company Netcare
[JSE:NTC], it said on Thursday.
Hospersa said that the employers had offered a 6% across-the-board wage increase, while it was demanding an 11% hike.
Hospersa general secretary Noel Desfontaines said: "SA remains one of the worst performers internationally in terms of income inequality in society.
"JSE-listed companies like Netcare ought to take cognisance of such conditions. It does not send out the right message, and smacks of corporate greed, when directors receive an increase in remuneration of above 40% - and then offer workers 6%. Yet these workers are at the rockface between Netcare, Medicross and every single client who passes through their doors.
"Furthermore, if one considers the dire shortage of nurses in SA, and the problems we face with other countries poaching our nurses with better salaries and working conditions, it is clear that we need to ensure that they are adequately remunerated," Desfontaines said.