A nationwide day of action calling for the protection of workers’ rights saw unions denouncing the inaction of government in addressing their needs.

Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) President Zingiswa Losi has asserted that change in the country’s labour system must be achieved.

Unions affiliated to Cosatu and the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) took to various key points, including provincial and local government offices. They call for a stronger injection of resources to protect and create employment for the masses.

The unions have also decried the government’s handling of their wage agreement. Losi says that the State’s behaviour is a bad example to the private and business sector.

“We have seen that the private sector has also come and said [that it would not pay wage agreement] so collective bargaining in this country has come to an end… We do not want a State that does not respect its own laws.”

Losi notes that by the State reneging on the agreement set out in the Public Sector Wage Bill, the private sector may soon follow suit. She says that there’s nothing stopping businesses from going back on negotiated agreements.

She was referring to the government has paid the second yearly instalment of its agreement with workers but has since announced that it cannot honour the contract in its final year.

The Cosatu President has lamented that government officials are in competition with each other, and don’t want to work to improve the lives of the public.

[Picture: Radio 786]