Latest news with #wagedeal
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Australia slashes public service jobs to cover train drivers' pay
One in seven Transport for NSW employees will be axed in a new round of job cuts, reportedly done in order to pay for the latest wage deal with the rail union. Up to 950 senior service managers are set to lose their jobs just weeks after 300 senior executives were sacked in June. Transport Secretary Josh Murray said the cuts were part of a wider move to 'restructure the chain of command' in an email to staff on Wednesday. Mr Murray said he understood the cuts would be 'concerning' to some. 'We have to get back to a model that is sustainable for the long term, delivers on our commitments, and provides appropriate career paths for our people,' he wrote. 'That also means reducing duplication, removing unclear reporting lines, and ensuring all our people are clear on what's expected of them. Change of this scale is never easy, and it affects all our people, their work, their teams, and their sense of certainty about the future.' Opposition Transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward (pictured right) said the cuts were required due to cost blowout caused by the latest wage deal with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU). 'These are the brutal cuts that pay for the union wage deals. The people being sacked are not senior bureaucrats - they're the engine room of the department, and their mistake was not joining the RTBU,' she said in a statement. 'These decisions send a clear message: under Labor, it's union first, commuters second.' Office staff will be affected in the latest round of cuts, with no frontline roles at risk. Unions were briefed about the cuts on Wednesday morning. Over the past five years, Transport for NSW has hired an additional 3,000 workers. The latest round of cuts comes after rail workers agreed to a new pay deal with the NSW government following months of industrial action. The Electrical Trades and the Rail, Tram and Bus unions initially sought a 32 per cent pay rise over four years, and a 35-hour working week. Their negotiations with the NSW government stalled in January, sparking a mass strike which brought the Sydney rail network to its knees after 2,500 rail services were cancelled or significantly impacted over a two day-period. More than 90 per cent of RTBU members voted to accept a 12 per cent wage increase over three years plus back pay on July 5. The deal will now progress to the Fair Work Commission for final approval. The RTBU also welcomed the move after a 'tough process'. 'It's fantastic that this long, and often bitter, dispute can finally be put behind us and that workers can get back to doing what they do best – moving commuters safely around the state,' union secretary Toby Warnes said at the time.
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Almost 1,000 public servants sacked to 'pay train drivers' wages'
Almost 1,000 Transport for NSW staff will be axed in the latest round of 'brutal' job cuts reportedly done to pay for the latest wage deal with the rail union. More to come.
News24
17-06-2025
- Business
- News24
Unions treat govt as an endless ATM
The Transnet wage deal shows that unions prefer protecting their members' privileges over the economic well-being of the country, writes Busisiwe Mavuso. • For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page. I was astounded to see news last week of Transnet's capitulation to union strike threats, agreeing to give workers 6% pay rises in each of the next three years. This agreement represents a failure of leadership on both sides – militant unions holding the country hostage with strike threats, and management caving to their demands without a fight. While South African businesses slash costs and workers face retrenchments, Transnet workers will get pay rises that are double the inflation rate, funded by taxpayers already struggling to make ends meet. Inflation is running at 2.7% and the economy is expected to only grow 1.4% this year. The news came days after National Treasury had agreed to give Transnet additional guarantees to enable it to manage its huge debt pile. In the private sector, the bleak economic outlook is leading to severe belt-tightening. Managers everywhere are having to find ways to save and try to hoard cash to be able to trade through tough conditions. Inevitably, some firms are going to fail, and workers will find themselves out of a job. Yet the unions threatened to bring the entire logistics network to a standstill unless their excessive demands were met, showing complete disregard for the economic factors that affect us all. It is even more shocking when you consider the role Transnet plays in perpetuating our economic predicament. Transnet's poor performance has been a major contributor to our dismal growth outlook. Stellenbosch University professor Jan Havenga has estimated that Transnet costs the economy R1 billion every day thanks to its poor performance in moving goods around the country and out through our ports. That is equivalent to wiping out the entire annual budget of a midsize municipality every day. It equates to about 5% of GDP. The unions are acting as if we live in a world we haven't seen for 15 years, when growth was running at over 5% and government boasted a budget surplus. Instead, we live in a world where Goodyear Tyres has just let go of over 900 workers after having to shut its 78-year-old plant in the Eastern Cape, affecting thousands more jobs down the value chain. Where SAB is engaging with unions about retrenching workers across its operations. Where mines across the country are retrenching thousands because they cannot get their output to the markets. In many of these cases, union action at Transnet is a direct contributor to this job carnage. The failure here is twofold: unions' refusal to accept performance-linked pay, and management's refusal to insist on it. If workers were to get increases indexed to Transnet's performance, we could support these. Bonuses could be tied to improvements in volumes shipped through ports and on rails, or specific metrics like international port efficiency rankings, which currently put SA's ports among the worst in the world.. Instead, the unions demanded guaranteed increases regardless of whether Transnet improves its service delivery. This represents a toxic dynamic where unions treat the state as an endless ATM. Private sector unions understand that companies must remain viable to protect jobs, but Transnet's unions can make unreasonable demands knowing that management cannot afford to have their suboptimal operations interrupted as this will put a further strain on the economy Worse still, they've secured additional job security guarantees in this wage agreement, further limiting Transnet's flexibility to restructure and improve performance. The unions know exactly what they're doing. They understand that by threatening strikes at Transnet, they can hold the entire economy hostage. They know that government will always cave rather than face the economic disruption of a logistics shutdown. This is economic blackmail, pure and simple, and taxpayers are footing the bill while the economy suffers. Firmer stance needed I've written many times about the solutions we need for Transnet, including private sector investment and competition. But as long as militant unions can veto any meaningful reform through strike threats, we'll remain trapped in this cycle of poor performance and endless bailouts. The unions have made it clear they prefer protecting their members' privileges over the economic well-being of the country. The wage settlement shows just how unhelpful these unions can become to South Africa's economic prospects. We need government to finally take a firmer stance. National Treasury must demand that any future bailouts come with strict conditions that break the unions' stranglehold over Transnet's operations. Treasury must insist on performance metrics as strict as those facing any private company seeking bailout funds, and the power to override union objections when restructuring is needed. Business wants to partner with Transnet, but the unions' actions are not helpful, and they do not support the economic recovery we're all trying to achieve. Until government finds a way of confronting union militancy at state-owned enterprises, taxpayers will continue subsidising this destructive cycle while our economy stagnates. The unions need to be called upon to contribute to solutions of rebuilding our economy rather than exacerbating its challenges.
Bloomberg
10-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Ghana Seeks to Shield Budget Goal as Nurses Strike Over Pay Deal
Ghana has asked its nurses to call off a strike and accept the implementation of a wage deal next year as it seeks to protect the 2025 budget from unplanned slippages. President John Mahama who came to power this year after winning election in December plans to cut the overall fiscal deficit to 3.1% of gross domestic product this year from 7.9% of GDP in 2024, in order to sustain recovery of the economy after a debt crisis under the previous administration. He also aims to achieve a primary budget surplus of 1.5% of GDP versus a 3.9% deficit last year.
