Trade unions COSATU and FEDUSA have warned that a 9.5% increase in Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) contributions is “excessive, unjust and unsustainable”.
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Trade unions COSATU and FEDUSA have warned that a 9.5% increase in Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) contributions is “excessive, unjust and unsustainable”.
In a joint statement released to the media on Thursday, the unions said the increase comes at a time when public servants are already under severe financial pressure due to rising food and transport costs.
"This campaign is also becoming bigger than GEMS alone. COSATU and FEDUSA are taking a stand against the rising cost of medical aid coverage in South Africa more broadly," the unions said.
"What is happening at GEMS reflects a wider crisis in which healthcare is becoming unaffordable even for working people with jobs, leaving families to downgrade cover, absorb impossible monthly increases, or fall out of private healthcare altogether. This is no longer only a GEMS issue. It is now a public issue about the rising cost of staying healthy in South Africa".
The unions also said that if engagement processes fail to produce a meaningful outcome, they are prepared to escalate the matter through mass protest action that could disrupt public sector services.
"Organised labour is consolidating its strength because public servants cannot be expected to carry a burden this severe in silence, and because the broader question of healthcare affordability can no longer be postponed.
"Our preference remains a political, legal and negotiated resolution. But there must be no misunderstanding. If those efforts do not produce a meaningful outcome, organised labour is ready to mobilise for mass protest action that will bring the public service to a standstill. Workers cannot be pushed to the wall and then told to accept it as normal.
"GEMS must come to its senses. It cannot continue pricing workers out of healthcare while pretending that the consequences are manageable".
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mthobisi.nozulela@iol.co.za