The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) expresses its disgust at the latest conduct of the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), which has chosen to undermine collective bargaining by negotiating through the media instead of engaging organised labour through the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC).

GEMS is fully aware that the PSCBC is the legitimate and recognised bargaining platform for all matters affecting public service workers. It is therefore unacceptable that GEMS chose to publicly communicate the Council for Medical Schemes’ (CMS) decision to reject the proposed 2% reduction in the 2026 members’ contribution increase before first briefing organised labour.

Adding injury to insult, GEMS has now issued a circular directly to workers, informing them of the CMS decision while completely bypassing their representatives. This has created unnecessary confusion, with workers approaching our unions for answers that GEMS has failed to provide. Such conduct is disrespectful, undermines collective bargaining and constitutes negotiating in bad faith.

Earlier this year, when workers overwhelmingly rejected the proposed 9.8% increase in members’ contributions, COSATU engaged GEMS through the PSCBC, the proper and lawful bargaining forum. Those engagements resulted in the increase being reduced from 9.8% to 9.5%. Workers rejected the insignificant 0.3% reduction and COSATU subsequently staged a picket outside the GEMS Head Office in Pretoria to demand meaningful relief.

Following further negotiations at the PSCBC, organised labour and GEMS reached an agreement to reduce the proposed increase from 9.5% to 7.5%, subject to the approval of CMS. Consistent with good faith bargaining, COSATU only communicated this outcome to its members and the public after engaging GEMS through the appropriate structures.

It is therefore deeply disappointing that, following the CMS decision not to approve the proposed reduction, GEMS has abandoned these same principles by rushing to the media and communicating directly with workers instead of first reporting back to organised labour through the PSCBC.

COSATU will not allow GEMS to go rogue and erode established collective bargaining processes. We have formally written to GEMS demanding an urgent meeting at the PSCBC where it must provide organised labour with a comprehensive explanation of the CMS decision and account for the reasons the application for the reduced contribution increase was not approved. 

COSATU is not convinced that GEMS presented a sufficiently compelling case to the CMS in support of the agreed 7.5% increase. This raises serious questions that require transparent engagement with organised labour rather than one-sided public communication.

Collective bargaining institutions exist for a reason. They cannot be bypassed whenever it suits an employer or public entity. COSATU rejects GEMS’ bad faith negotiating tactics and expects it to respect the PSCBC and the role of organised labour by urgently confirming a date and time for a genuine, bona fide engagement.

Issued by COSATU

Zanele Sabela (COSATU Spokesperson)

Mobile: 079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639

Email: zaneles@cosatu.org.za