Tshwane Municipality to comply with bargaining council ruling to hike employee salaries

The City of Tshwane Metro Municipality said it will be complying with the ruling from the South African Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) to increase the salaries of all its employees.

The capital initially approached the council seeking a deviation from a previously agreed-upon arrangement for a 3.5% salary hike in the 2021/2022 financial year.

The municipality argued before the council, it was not able to afford the increase; however, its reasons were dismissed.

Since 2022, the Tshwane Municipality has been bouncing between the bargaining council and the Labour Court, fighting against implementing the salary increase.

The municipality has maintained it cannot afford the 3.5% increase, which would add R489 million to its annual budget.

However, the municipality has now been ordered to implement the salary increase and pay the workers retrospective back pay.

Democratic Alliance (DA) Tshwane spokesperson on finance Jacqui Uys said the back pay alone will likely set the municipality close to R1.4 billion.

“The DA believes that the award is legally flawed and we call on the City of Tshwane to take it on judicial review.”

However, Tshwane MMC for Finance Eugene Modise said the city won’t be taking the ruling on review and will be engaging with worker unions on a sustainable plan to implement the bargaining council’s ruling.