South Africa Raises Wage Offer to Civil Servants in a Bid to Avert Strike
The South African government revised its wage offer to the 1.3 million state workers who are negotiating new contracts. They offered a 7% pay raise, up from 6.5%, and did not change its offer for a higher housing allowance. The unions have asked for a 8.6% pay raise and a monthly housing allowance of 1,000 rand. The Public Servants Association has said that they will strike again on August 10 if the government did not acquiesce to their demands, and other unions said that they would protest on the tenth, before instigating a strike. A spokesman for the government said that they had not reached an agreement, but weer still negotiating and that the government wants a multi-year agreement to stave off more strikes. The state transport and power companies gave their workers 11 and 9% raises.
See "South Africa Raises Wage Offer to Civil Servants in a Bid to Avert Strike", Mike Cohen, Bloomberg News, August 4, 2010