Salga hopeful that negotiations will continue

Johannesburg - Salga said on Sunday that it hoped SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) workers would return to the wage negotiation table, after abandoning talks last week.

"We encouraged Samwu to give negotiations a chance," said the SA Local Government Association (Salga) spokesperson Tahir Sema.

"We can only hope leadership will respond to the call."

Unions, Samwu and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) want an 11% wage hike, while Salga is offering a revised 5.9% hike.

Earlier this weekend, Samwu's General-Secretary Walter Theledi said the association’s revised offer is a slap in the face of workers who have scaled down their ask from 15%. He said the union was not interested in a fourth round of talks, should Salga fail to improve its offer.

On Sunday, Sema said that the unions were not accepting the need for a "give and take" situation.

"We put three improvements on the table...The unions refuse to revise their demands."

Sema said the current demand by unions was "completely unaffordable".

"We are negotiating in a range of affordability. Anything of a double digit is a no-go area. The municipalities can’t afford it."

Sema said the employers had offered revisions on the overall salary increase, an offer of a minimum wage amount and expressed willingness to discuss housing allowances.

He said employers were available to resume talks for the next four weeks. The wage negotiations are on behalf of 270 000 municipal workers.

Further comment from Samwu was not available on Sunday afternoon.