Govt tries to postpone unions' court challenge over wage increases until Feb

The government wants unions to consider a fresh proposal for an out of court settlement over increases for public sector workers.

The government is trying to postpone Wednesday's court hearing on the public sector wage bill.

It wants the case postponed till February next year in the hope that an out-of-court settlement can be reached instead.

The legal battle is over the wage increase included in a deal reached with unions in 2018.

The outlook for the fiscus has deteriorated since then and government has to focus on cutting costs.

RELATED: Mboweni's plan to cut public wage bill must be followed by action - economist

2020 is the last stage of the wage agreement.

Public servants were promised salary increases from April of between 4.4% and 5.4%.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni first proposed cutting the wage bill in his February budget speech.

Bruce Whitfield interviews Lumkile Mondi, senior lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Economics and Business Science.

Mondi believes Mboweni is not getting enough support from Cabinet to carry out his promises of cutting costs.

The minister of Finance and his team are actually in an ongoing battle... around fiscal discipline. The Economic Advisory Council and those within the alliance partnership... their ideology around what is the path of economic reconstruction and recovery

Lumkile Mondi, Senior lecturer - Wits School Of Economics And Business Science

Listen to Mondi discuss the ideological battle around South Africa's path of economic reconstruction and recovery:

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