The thousands of striking teachers should not look forward to a full pay package this month as the Department for Public Service and Administration confirmed that they are not going to pay the teachers for the time that they have spent demonstrating their anger over a wage increase and attractive incentive allowance.

Speaking in an exclusive telephonic interview, Mr Kenny Govender from the Department for Public Service and Administration said that they will deduct the salaries of the striking educators on the principle of ´no work, no pay´.

"It must be applied and it will be applied. We are not going to pay them for the times they were not in the classrooms. We are busy working on the matter, but at this stage, I am not in a position to tell you the exact dates the deductions will be effected, but what I am sure of is that it will be this month and next month," he said.

Teachers, together with other public service workers, have been engaged in a crippling industrial strike throughout the country over a wage increase and attractive allowances.

The public service employees are demanding a 12% salary increase over a single term, commencing on April 1, every year, a reduction in the number of notches in the pay progression system and de-linking from performance.

In reaction to the ´no work, no pay´ rule, the local regional secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), Mr Given Rafapa, said the language used to explain the Labour Relations Act is very clear, that as long as they have got the right to strike, it remains at the discretion of the employer to implement the ´no work, no pay´ rule for the job not done.

He accused the department of using the rule as a scaring tactic towards the striking teachers. "We view it as a bold statement to scare our members, but we are determined to suffer until our demands are met," he said.

The spokesperson of the Provincial Department of Education in Limpopo, Mr Ndo Mangala, said that, as long as the industrial action is national as well as the fact that negotiations are taking place at the public service co-ordinating bargaining council, there was nothing they could do as a provincial department. "We are just helpless. The best that we can do is to put measures in place for when the striking is over. According to the Labour Relations Act, workers have the right to strike, and the employer is not obliged to pay for the services not rendered," he said.