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Workers belonging to the Public Servants Association.
The Public Servants Association (PSA) in Gauteng will on Saturday embark on a protest against the steep monthly contribution increases for the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS).
Several public sector unions, such as Fedusa and Cosatu, have slammed the medical schemes’ January contribution increase of 9.8% and a further 9.5% increase effective from the 1st of April.
Thousands of people are expected to gather at the GEMS headquarters in Pretoria on Saturday, where a memorandum of demands will be handed over to GEMS officials.
PSA Acting Deputy General Manager Claude Naiker says, “We’re hoping that they will take our demands very seriously because public servants are really angry now with the projected 9.8% increase. As you remember, last year, despite numerous consultation meetings with them, throughout the year, they still went ahead and implemented the 13% as well as this year’s 9.8% increase. Remember, public servants received an inflation-linked salary in the region of 5%, having implemented the 13% last year and 9.8% this year. This effectively wipes out that salary increase. So, for this year, you will see that the salary increase will obviously be wiped out by the GEMS increase.”
