SARS operations not affected by strike

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has maintained that it will continue to run all of its operations – including customs and excise – without a hitch despite the national strike by unions at the tax body, which began last week.

The Public Servants Association (PSA) and the National Education, Health, and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) embarked on a strike at SARS after the revenue service and unions could not break a deadlock over wages during negotiations.

The strike kicked off days after SARS offered to channel savings from 2021 towards paying salaries, but maintained that it could not afford to accede to the unions’ demands for a CPI plus 7% increase. While SARS says it received no formal response to the offer, a strike ensued after it was made.

SARS spokesperson Siphithi Sibeko told Fin24 that the entity would continue its usual operations despite the strike, noting that employees showed up and reported for duty on Monday despite the industrial action.

In a statement, SARS Commissioner Edward Kieswetter said SARS is a microcosm of the broader society and that the discontent regarding rising costs along with less-than-expected increases was understandable.

“Employees do not willingly withhold their labour, because that in itself has a financial impact on them under already tough times. One has to understand, though, that when workers feel frustrated, they feel that by going on strike it is the last resort for them to be heard,” said Kieswetter.

Kieswetter said the first day of the strike proceeded in an orderly manner, without incident, and due to the wide range of online services, disruptions to the tax authority’s day-to-day operations remained minimal.

Nehawu spokesperson Lwazi Nkolisi said while its industrial action continued, the union would seek a mandate from membership nationally to determine whether it should accept SARS’s latest offer or continue with its industrial action.

“Nehawu is proceeding with the national strike at SARS until the demands of our members and workers are met by the employer. In the next coming two days, we will be embarking on feedback and mandating processes in picket lines on the current offer from SARS,” Nkolisi said.

Nkolisi said the union would then respond to the offer of SARS in accordance with the mandate of workers. A PSA spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment and had not responded to questions from Fin24 by the time of publication. - Fin24