IN-DEPTH | 'We're heading in for a strike': Expert on public sector wage negotiations

The government is on a collision course with its 1.3 million-strong workforce after it rejected nearly all the demands made by public-sector labour unions.

Unions are demanding a 10% salary increase, while the government instead offered to extend the R1 000 after-tax cash gratuity coupled with a 1.5% pay increase.

The state is desperately trying to reduce the country's ballooning public sector wage bill which currently sits at R665 billion.