Public sector unions representing 1 million members called off a nearly monthlong strike on Thursday, bringing an end to a labor action that shut down schools and crippled hospitals across South Africa.
A majority of the unions agreed to sign the government's final offer including a 7.5 percent wage increase. The rest will return to work while negotiations continue, the unions said in a statement released after talks on Wednesday night.
Several deaths in hospitals were blamed on the strike because nurses stayed away from work despite being barred from striking as "essential workers."
The government sent dismissal notices to several hundred health workers who defied the ban. But under the settlement deal, the workers will receive written warnings instead of being dismissed.
The pact also establishes a framework to set up a minimum service agreement with essential workers that promises to dampen the impact of future strikes, the South African Press Association reported (SAPA).
Some union members said on government radio that they felt betrayed by acceptance of the final wage offer. Unions originally demanded a 12 percent raise and the government offered 6.5 percent.
The end of the strike, which began on June 1, was expected after two unions ended their walkout. Striking workers had begun to feel the pinch of weeks without pay and schools are now on winter holiday, eliminating the impact of stay away teachers.
Unions have until July 20 to sign the government's offer and make the settlement official.
Two of the biggest teachers' unions are among those that have indicated they will not sign the agreement.
Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the trade union federation COSATU, said on Tuesday the unions were relatively satisfied with the government's offer.
"We are disappointed that we did not win everything we wanted. But no strike has ever been entirely successful," he said.
"I hereby convey our congratulations to all of you for what will go down in the history of our country as the best industrial action ever to be led by COSATU unions," he said.
But Dave Balt, president of the National Professional Teachers' Organization of South Africa, which declined to sign the agreement, was not celebrating.
"It's not quite a win-win for everybody. It's a win-win for certain sectors and maybe not such a win-win for other sectors," he said.
Balt said teachers' unions would take their grievances up with the government, SAPA said.
Steven Friedman, research associate at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa, a private think tank, labeled the outcome a "draw," though he says the long and bitter labor action is evidence of a deep rift between government and labor.
The governing African National Congress has long been allied with labor.
RSS