NEHAWU DISMISSES THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS'S SURVEY AS HOGWASH

NEHAWU has noted with concern and incredulity the latest survey from that purveyor of capitalist propaganda the South African Institute of Race Relations {SAIRR} saying that Public Sector workers earn 44% more than those in the private sector. This is nothing more than a disinformation campaign deliberately made-up to reinforce the myth that public servants are overpaid and their increases need to be moderated.

This flawed information unfortunately has been recycled without scrutiny by the unsuspecting media to achieve narrow political goals and unfortunately the SAIRR is being used as an authoritative source by the neoliberals to espouse their policies that promote anti-union, anti-worker and anti-social measures. These repeated attacks on the working class are meant to roll back whatever minor liberal measures that have been implemented by government to improve the lives of the workers.

The union finds it preposterous that while government is complaining that workers are leaving the public service to the private sector for better pay and also complaining that they cannot compete with the private sector, the SAIRR's so called survey shows that public servants are "better paid". A Registered nurse earns between R73, 371-R157, 312 in a government hospital while in a private hospital a nurse earns R117, 935-R168, 894 annually and we are told that public sector workers are on average earning 44% more that employees in the private sector.

What this pseudo survey has failed to clarify is which methodology was used to make this determination and whether the institute understands the difference between the public sector employees and the public service workers. The failure to distinguish between public sector and public service wage increases discredits the outcomes and conclusions made by the institute because public sector workers do not use the same bargaining structures and therefore do not receive the same salary increases and benefits.

The SAIRR needs to tell us which categories have been compared from the private and public sector. Are they comparing teachers, nurses, clerks with security guards and waiters? Their survey is very broad and does not show how public sector workers are divided and which levels in the public service are included. 

The recent salary adjustments for government employees have only just managed to keep pace with inflation. We have consistently complained about the huge wage gap between senior bureaucrats in government and the officials at a lower level but even there, to say they are overpaid compared to the private sector is hogwash.

In 2008 the top 20 directors of JSE-listed companies earned an average of R59 million per annum each whilst in 2009 the average earnings of an employee in the South African economy was R34 000. On average, each of the top 20 paid directors in JSE-listed companies earned 1728 times the average income of a South African worker. On average, between 2007 and 2008, these directors received 124% increase in their earnings, compared to below 10% settlements that ordinary workers tend to settle at.

Directors in State-Owned Enterprises{SOE's} also experienced the same rate of increase in their earnings, thereby contributing to income disparities in the economy. The top 20 directors in SOE's received a 59% increase in their earnings, collectively raking in R132 223 million.  This amounts to R6.6 million per director, which is 194 times the average income of the South African worker. 

The institute needs to tell us about the inequalities that exist between cleaners and researchers and directors because these inequalities are embarrassing and are the source of the long and volatile strikes they are talking about. Their slanted general survey prove that they would rather have the public sector join the race to the bottom rather than see an improvement in the cost of living adjustment.

The institute needs to do a study to find out the impact of government's failure to fill vacancies in the public service on service delivery. For example, in 1994 the public service employed about 1.4 million people. Today the public service employs close to 1.045 million people, which means that there are 355 000 less public servants in the country today than there were in 1994

The current workforce is overworked and underpaid but of course the institutes like SAIRR with their inconsistent surveys do not care about the conditions public servants work under. They treat them like a nuisance that they would rather see stuck at the bottom end of the economic pyramid.

The public sector wage increases are meant to provide a living wage to millions of families that depend on them but it would seem that SAIRR uses measures that assume individuals need R322 a month to survive. Those methods will of course show that individual poverty has declined from 52.5% to 48% while perpetuating poverty and encouraging inequalities that produce a society of the rich and poor. 

Statement issued by Sizwe Pamla, NEHAWU Media Liaison Officer, February 3 2011

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