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South African Revenue Service executive for remuneration and benefits Takalani Musekwa told Fin24 that all of the tax body’s services will be back online from Wednesday after the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union accepted the latest wage offer.
After a long day of consulting with its members on Tuesday, Nehawu received a mandate from its members to accept the final offer of an 8% increase in 2019 and CPI plus 2% in the two years following 2019.
Some 33 branches were forced to close nationwide on the first day of the strike as thousands of employees downed tools.
Taxpayers were encouraged to use email and the online portal to go about their tax affairs.
On Monday, the Public Servant's Association accepted the same offer. The initial demand from unions of a 15% increase was eventually revised down to 11%.
Musekwa told Fin24 that SARS was grateful to organised labour for accepting the wage deal which was the best that SARS could offer under the current circumstances.
"We would like to thank the organised labour colleagues for how they approached this matter. The outcome might not be what some have wanted but we thank the employees for putting the organisation first," said Musekwa.
Musekwa told Fin24 that Nehawu staff were expected to report for duty on Wednesday, now that the deal had been agreed upon.
"Customers are now welcome to visit any of the branches and taxpayers can continue to use our services to get their tax affairs in order," Musekwa said.
Even though Nehawu eventually accepted the wage offer, the union said in a statement that it considered PSA’s "premature" signing of the agreement on Monday as "regrettable".
