Nehawu on Wednesday called for public service wage negotiations to be reopened.

“The three-year agreement we signed in 2012 is coming to an end in March 2015, hence we have reopened the negotiations at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council,” the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) said in a statement.

It had consulted its members to finalise their demands for negotiations. The union would now wait for a response from Treasury and the public service and administration department on the reopening of the negotiations.

Nehawu wanted a single-term agreement with a 15 percent increase across the board and a R3000 housing allowance pending finalisation of the Government Employees Housing Scheme, and an annual subsidy adjustment for the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) based on CPI used for the salary adjustment.

It wanted the administration of GEMS services insourced, six months maternity leave, two weeks paternity leave and 10 days special leave for parents with children who had special needs. It wanted salary levels one to three abolished.

According to the union, workers on salary level one earned around R5650, level two R6087, level three R7277, and level four R8624.

“Our call for the abolition of these salary levels is informed by the urgent need to close the huge wage gap between the highest paid and the lowest paid,” it said. SAPA