South Africa's Public Servants Association (PSA) on Friday called on workers to resort to "drastic measures" to force the government to conclude 2018 wage negotiations.

"The negotiations process which has been delayed numerous times before by the employer continued on April 4 and 5 in the form of facilitation instead of proper head-to-head negotiations preferred by the PSA," it said in a statement.

"The parties made use of various options to try get closer to one another on labour’s demands, but unfortunately it did not yield the desired outcomes."

The government this week denied it was intentionally delaying wage negotiations.

But on Friday the PSA, which represents some 238,000 public servants, accused the government of trying to force workers to take extreme measures, and said the stand-off would now be discussed in a labour principals meeting to determine the way forward.

"The PSA is cautioning members to be ready for the inevitable," general manager Ivan Fredericks said.