South Africa’s top court upheld a ruling by a lower tribunal that allowed the government to renege on salary increases for public servants, bolstering its efforts to rein in runaway debt and the budget deficit.The government backtracked on an agreement to raise pay for about 1.3 million employees in 2020, the final year of a three-year deal.
Monday’s ruling means the government won’t have to find additional funds to make good on the agreement or bolster efforts to reduce its headcount. The Public Servant’s Association, which represents more than 240,000 state workers, said it intends to seek increases equivalent to the consumer inflation rate — which currently stands at 5.7% — plus 2 percentage points, and that it wants a single-year wage deal.