Thousands of SA Revenue Service (Sars) employees will go on an indefinite national strike on Thursday after wage negotiations between the tax agency and unions reached a deadlock.
It is the first time in a decade that Sars employees will down tools and the strike action is expected to affect customs branches a day before the the 2018-2019 financial year deadline.
It also takes place a day after the appointment of Edward Kieswetter as the new Sars commissioner. The post has been filled by Mark Kingon in an acting capacity since President Cyril Ramaphosa fired its former incumbent Tom Moyane.
The Public Servants Association (PSA) and National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), the two recognised unions at Sars, said they will go ahead with the strike after they rejected the tax agency’s final wage offer made on Tuesday evening.
Both unions said the strike would be indefinite until Sars comes to the table with an improved wage offer they could take to their members. The unions have asked for a 11.4% increase in salaries across board for a single term only.
Sars on Tuesday had offered an 8% increase in the first year of a multi-term agreement, with CPI plus 1% increases for year two and three of the agreement.
The settlement offer also included the tax agency acceding to pre-natal leave, long-service increases and the status quo on other leave demands.
Sars said it told the unions that for it to have reprioritised its expenditure for an 8% increase, a multi-term agreement was essential to create a level of financial certainty for the organisation, as well as the time needed to close on the savings that the organisation would need to make.
This was rejected by both the PSA and Nehawu which respectively represent about 5,300 and 4,400 members at Sars’s bargaining council.
December Mavuso, Nehawu deputy general secretary, said the strike would affect all workers at Sars, including those who work at land, air and sea ports of entry into SA.
Nehawu general secretary Zola Saphetha said the biggest impact of the strike would be felt at those ports.
The tax agency said it has put contingency measures in place and has activated plans to have minimal disruption to taxpayer services across Sars branches and ports of entries.
It also applied to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on Tuesday for an intervention in terms of the Labour Relations Act in an attempt to solve the dispute.
Source: Business Day
