Strikes: reward merit, say experts

Cape Town - The public sector strike is increasingly drawing attention the lip service government has paid to performance management, analysts said on Thursday.

This means civil servants get rewarded whether they perform or not, which ultimately requires taxpayers to foot a ballooning bill for mediocrity.

As public service unions look set to reject government's revised wage offer of 7.5% (as opposed to the 8.6% unions are demanding), Investment Solutions economist Chris Hart said there is only one consequence if government borrows more money to pay its employees – higher taxes.

"Taking more resources out of the economy to pay salaries means there will be less for wealth production," Hart told Fin24.com.

He also warned wage increases not matched by productivity levels "creates victims" in that it restricts the number of jobs available in the economy. In turn, this increases the demand for welfare, for which taxpayers foot the bill.

"As other countries are beginning to realise, this (cycle) does not have a good ending," said Hart.

He said the blame for the situation lies squarely with the goverment, because it has opted for the path of least resistance and maximum political benefit by giving civil sevants across-the-board salary hikes.

"The increase on the table becomes more problematic because it is an across-the-board one. It means that if you as a civil servant work very hard, you get the 7.5% increase - and if you do nothing, you get 7.5% ," said Hart. "There is no incentive other than your pride to perform with any degree of excellence."

The result is that although government's education budget has doubled to R165bn in five years and although school enrolment is up, it has failed to reverse declining exam results or offer improved teaching standards.

According to the Centre for Enterprise Development (CDE), between 75% and 80% of all government schools are dysfunctional. The CDE's Anne Bernstein said South Africans are just not getting a return on their tax investment.

While the Public Service Commission regularly warned parliament about slack adherence to the performance management systems that do exist, the South African Democratic Teacher Union's (Sadtu's) deputy general secretary Nkosana Dolopi said the union is not averse to performance management.

He argued that teachers are subjected to the performance management codes set out on the Integrated Quality Management System, of which Sadtu is a signatory.

While this system is not linked to annual salary increments, it has been criticised for being too soft in its approach and for its lack of sanction for non-performance.

- Fin24.com