Nursing and state hospital staff aligned to the Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) held protests on Thursday over the deadlocked public service wage talks.

This comes as the Public Servants Association (PSA), which has 235 000 members, kicked off its strike in the public service on Thursday with several marches. The government maintained that the PSA action would be limited to lunchtime pickets and would not disrupt any public services.

There have been reports of disruptions at Home Affairs offices and border posts on Thursday morning, but News24 could not immediately confirm the incidents.

Hospersa members had taken taken to the streets in Free State and Gauteng. 

Hospersa, which has 50 000 members, said in a statement that the 2022/23 wage negotiations were marred by the governments decision to go against the provisions of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) when a 3% wage increase was unilaterally implemented in the public service in line with section 5 of the Public Service Act.

"The fight against the assault on collective bargaining is paramount to the fight for improved salaries and conditions of service in the present, as well as for posterity. Hospersa believes that the latter cannot happen without the former, and therefore, by intentionally undermining the processes and institution of collective bargaining, the employer is by extension undermining the welfare of its own employees," it said.

The statement said while the union was not striking, Hospersa planned to get the employer to come back to the negotiating table with a genuine attempt to resolve this dispute.

"Hospersa will continuously engage its members on the importance of safeguarding collective bargaining and ensuring that collective bargaining structures are kept in place in advancing worker rights, conditions of service, and benefits. The statement said that the intended industrial action comes in the wake of frustration never seen before by public servants.

Hospersa said its members were already threatened with disciplinary action should they embark on industrial action, yet the government "happily capitulates to state-owned entity workers" by granting them increases.

PSA members held marches in areas including Bloemfontein and Pretoria on Thursday morning. The government said on Thursday that it would apply the no-work no-pay principle at public service offices on Thursday if public servants are not at their posts during working hours.