With no sign of negotiation compromise between the employer and the public sector trade unions, negotiators have settled for a 6% housing allowance that unions consider to be a major breakthrough although they view it as being too little, they wanted more than 10% as housing allowance. In a milestone trade-off, their salaries on study leave will no longer be slashed; they will be paid their salaries in full for the duration of the entire study leave. But there was no settlement of other unions demands which included improved conditions of service, among them extension of entertainment allowance to other cadres, leave travelling concession, improvement of overtime rates, introduction

of paternity leave, increase of contribution of government in contributory pension, improvement of the mileage allowance, improvement of the subsistence allowance, as well as a 13th cheque in the civil service by the end of this year. As the negotiations went on, the unions moved from their original 15% to 13% and later 11%. The employer, on the other hand, conceded very little, only moving from 4% to 5%. The employer indicated that though it was out of their mandate, they were ready re-negotiate the issue of a housing allowance alongside a salary increment as thatThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) has on several occasions advised government to trim its wage bill that stands at P13 billion annually (about 10%of GDP) on 130 000 employees. The 5% increment will push the wage bill up by P675 million. The union submitted its proposal for a salary increment and improved conditions of service on November 2013. The employer only replied through a counter-proposal on January, 2015.more than one year later might give them room to manoeuvre. “We have made progress in the negotiations and I am confident that we will conclude today. At the moment I am not in a position to give detailed information.” Said, the chief negotiator for the union. The general secretary of the union was also cagey with details “Currently I am not in a position to share anything because we are still waiting to finish a few things before issuing a press statement today. “Everything will be communicated to the media in the afternoon tomorrow”