Big S.Africa state workers' union rejects pay offer

By Peroshni Govender and Jon Herskovitz

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - One of South Africa's largest state workers' unions said on Wednesday it had rejected a new pay offer from the government aimed at ending a three-week strike by about 1.3 million workers in Africa's largest economy.

Shortly after NEHAWU, which has more than 200,000 members in healthcare and other services, made the announcement, a coalition of more than a dozen state workers' unions began talks on whether to accept the offer. Union officials said there was no early consensus.

"NEHAWU has rejected the offer," Sizwe Pamla, a NEHAWU spokesman, told Reuters. The country's biggest union for state workers, the teachers' group SADTU, has also indicated its members have rejected the offer.

The two unions, totalling about half a million members, are in the country's largest federation, COSATU, and are seen as having a major influence on the way other COSATU unions vote.

Government officials, who have said they are optimistic a deal will be reached soon, would not comment on NEHAWU's decision.

The strike has ended the national euphoria over hosting the June-July football World Cup, local media said, as it has shut schools, led to bodies piling up at state morgues and dampened investor sentiment.

Just before the NEHAWU announcement, COSATU said it was suspending a one-day sympathy strike this week by all its member unions that could have shut mines, to give state workers more time to consider the new wage offer.

That removes some of the pressure on President Jacob Zuma's ruling African National Congress to reach a deal fast or risk a massive labour action that could damage the economy.