Seven unions in the public service face an uphill battle as they press on with their national day of action on Tuesday, which will be the country's third national one-day strike by organised labour this year alone.

The government told News24 that, like the last one-day public service strike, it expects all public servants to be on duty on Tuesday and will apply the no-work-no-pay principle. On Monday afternoon, meanwhile, Western Cape structures of these unions announced that they would postpone marches due to safety concerns amid taxi strikes in progress. 

Unions belonging to Cosatu, the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), and the Federation of Unions of SA (Fedusa) announced the planned national day of action last week - the latest in a series of demonstrations unions have organised at national scale this year.

In August, Cosatu and Saftu together held a general one-day strike around the country in protest against corruption; loadshedding, which had reached Stage 6 at the time; and the public service wage deadlock.

Earlier in November, the Public Servants' Association (PSA) held a national one-day strike across the country, complete with a march to the National Treasury in Pretoria. Since then, the unions have continued to hold pickets and threatened more demonstrations.

Picket on your own time

Disruptions caused by the national demonstrations organised thus far have been relatively minimal, and Public Service and Administration spokesperson Moses Mushi said the government expected a normal day of work on Tuesday - adding that the no-work-no-pay policy would apply, as it did during the PSA march.

"All we can say is that we expect public servants to be at work tomorrow. Those who picket must use their own time to picket. Those who picket during working hours, no work, no pay," said Mushi.

Mushi said public servants in the Western Cape who cannot report for duty on Tuesday due to the taxi strike are to notify their managers. All other public servants that are not ill or on leave were expected at work, he noted.

"Those cases will be managed by the managers in those offices, so case-by-case, managers will have to apply their minds and manage the situation best," Mushi said.

The national day of action strike will include a march in every province to reject the government's 3% baseline wage offer in the public service.

The main demonstration in Gauteng will be a march to the National Treasury's offices in Pretoria. Union structures in the Free State will march to Bloemfontein.

In the North West, members will march to the office of Premier Bushy Maape. In Mpumalanga, workers will march to the Batho Pele Public Works Offices and Tinstwalo Hospital.

In KwaZulu-Natal, members will march to Marine Building in Durban. In the Eastern Cape, members will march to Bisho. Northern Cape members will march to the office of Premier Zamani Saul.

Limpopo's march will include structures in all five districts in their respective regions. The Western Cape was meant to hold a march to Parliament, but this has been postponed due to the taxi strike by the SA National Taxi Council.