AIDC application to Constitutional Court to challenge reneging of the final year of the public sector wage agreement

AIDC application to Constitutional Court to challenge reneging of the final year of the public sector wage agreement

Press Release | AIDC| 3 August 2021

 The Alternative Information and Development Centre (AIDC) has applied to the Constitutional Court to be admitted as an amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the Public Servants Association and Others v Minister of Public Service and Others.

Public sector unions are challenging the government’s decision to renege on the final year of the 2018 public sector wage agreement. The Labour Appeals Court held that the government was permitted to renege from the agreement. The Constitutional Court will hear the union’s appeal on 24 August 2021.

In AIDC’s application, we will argue that the Labour Appeals Court’s decision – which held that cutting (real) wages was part of an economic recovery – was fundamentally neoliberal. AIDC will argue that the Constitutional Court should steer clear of this ideological pitfall. Neoliberalism has no place in crafting just and equitable court orders. 

Specifically, AIDC will:

• explain that just and equitable orders may not be neoliberal; 
• illustrate how the Labour Appeal Court’s judgment, and the state’s approach to this appeal, are both neoliberal;
• and urge this Court to craft a remedy in this matter that does not rely on neoliberalism.

The purpose of our submissions is not to convince the Court to adopt AIDC’s preferred ideology. The purpose is to ensure the Court is mindful of ensuring that neoliberalism does not silently creep into its reasoning at the expense of constitutional rights.

AIDC is represented by Richard Spoor Inc, Attorneys.

See AIDC’s application here

For more information contact

Dominic Brown 0813094973

Dick Forslund 0828957947