By Lesego Masemola and Hanti Otto
Prosecutors can look forward to being paid the long-awaited increases they were promised in 2007.
Negotiating parties reached a settlement agreement which provides for the implementation of the occupational-specific dispensation (OSD) for employees employed by the National Prosecuting Authority, the Legal Aid Board and the Department of Justice.
The out-of-court agreement comes a day before the case was to be heard at the labour court.
However, prosecutors were weary about getting too exited about the settlement.
"We are cautiously optimistic. This settlement gives direction forward, but it does not bind the Ministers of Finance or Public Services - it is there that our problems lay. I first want to see if they sign. Without that we will not get paid," said one prosecutor.
Another said they would only believe it when they saw the money in their bank accounts.
"We are so tired of promises that are never realised. The prosecutors are extremely negative. All the broken promises by our own employer have caused a major breach of trust," he said.
Others were just as pessimistic: "How can we believe anything they say?
"Year after year we have to fight our own bosses just to force them to do the right thing, while they allegedly stand for justice for all! What example do the top bosses set for the public by treating their own employees like this?"
The dispute is based on Minister of Justice Bridgette Mabandla's failure to raise their salaries by a promised 10,5 percent, or implement the OSD retrospective from July 1, 2007, as determined in the salary agreement signed by the public service trade unions and government in 2007.
Public Servants Association deputy general manager Manie de Clercq said: "The PSA has been engaged in negotiations with the employer's legal representatives which resulted in the signing of the settlement (on Tuesday)."
He said about 3 000 additional prosecutors will get the OSD .
"All arrears payments from the period July 1, 2007 to March 2008 will be duly paid to the respective employees by December 31. In terms of the agreement, the second phase of the OSD will be finalised and payment will be implemented retrospectively to July 1, 2007 on or before March 2009," he said.
De Clercq said the settlement agreement would be made an order of court. Failure to implement it would constitute contempt of court.
According to De Clercq, the majority of employees had indicated that they had accepted the outcome of the settlement.