The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has gone back to its striking workforce with a new 1.5% wage increase.
The strike by SARS workers has spread to many branches across the country since May, before a truce was reached this week, when the revenue service offered 1.39% salary hike and said it did not have the resources to meet the labour’s demand of CPI (consumer price inflation) plus 7% increase.
After engaging with organised labour, SARS made a proposal to reach a final settlement of an across-the-board increase of 1.5% for permanent employees backdated to April 1.
In a statement on Wednesday, SARS said this was on condition that should the broader public sector negotiations be resolved at an increase of higher than 1.5%, the National Treasury would accordingly make additional funding available towards the settlement agreement.
SARS said: “The slight adjustment to the across-the-board proposal is possible due to projected savings from a delay in recruitment against an initial plan. In the spirit of transparency and a commitment to resolving the dispute, SARS management has decided to allocate the savings towards the increased salary proposal.
“Parties agreed that the unions embark on a mandate-seeking process on this offer. Strike action was suspended by the Public Servants Association during this mandate-seeking process, while Nehawu [National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union] has not formally communicated its intentions to SARS.”
With regards to various isolated incidents of intimidation and violence committed by some strikers, SARS said it would take necessary action against those who violate its code of conduct, and/or those who have broken the law.
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