Linda Ensor
30 June 2009
Cape Town — Today's deadline for concluding negotiations between the government and public service trade unions on the occupational specific dispensation for state employees would not be extended, Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi insisted yesterday.
Baloyi was confident that negotiations would be concluded today despite an intensification of the doctors' strike, which has spread to the Western Cape.
He was also emphatic that the deadline for all issues related to the occupational specific dispensation was "non-negotiable".
"Let no one think that the occupational specific dispensation is going to be open beyond tomorrow. We are not going to do that," Baloyi told reporters ahead of his budget vote speech in Parliament today.
He said negotiations over salaries in the medical sector were going "very well" and that there were no major differences over the revision of salary structures.
"I am confident that we can resolve quite a number of these issues."
Baloyi said if negotiations were not finalised as expected, he would announce in his speech what the government's plan of action would be. He stressed that attempts by civil servants to achieve their objectives outside of negotiations, for example by making threats, would not be tolerated. He would elaborate on this in his speech, he said.
Baloyi said he would also deal with the obstacles to effective service delivery, including corruption and conflicts of interest.
"For us to have a successful, responsive public service we have to rely on public servants who are committed and play according to the rules. We will analyse how effective our instruments are."
With regard to the introduction of a single public service which will harmonise the conditions of service for employees in all spheres of government, Baloyi said the department would be engaging with stakeholders and would finalise the processes related to it by the end of this financial year.
He said the new system would allow for the transfer of resources between spheres of government in order to strengthen those which needed it.
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