Johannesburg: The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the Department of Public Service and Administration will join forces to try to improve delivery in key areas of public service. Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi yesterday announced the formation of a task team consisting of union leaders and the department that would target union members working in the education, health and home affairs departments.

The initiative will be led by Cosatu's public sector co-ordinator, Sibusiso Khumalo, and his counterpart in the state, Randall Howard.

Mr Howard is adviser to Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi, and a former general secretary of the South African Transport Workers Union. The plan, the first active partnership between the government and labour to improve service delivery, comes after sections of the ruling party criticised Cosatu for not playing its part in helping to bring about transformation.

African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe recently complained about municipal workers who, despite delivering "substandard services", demanded double-digit salary increases from poor or cash-strapped councils.

Mr Vavi said that while unions would continue to protect workers' rights, union membership should not be an "insurance" and a "forest" where corrupt and underperforming workers could hide. "If we don't deliver proper services in the public hospitals, or in home affairs, it's other Cosatu members who make up the working class that suffer," he said.

Mr Vavi said Cosatu was forced to move away from narrow sectoral interests to advance the "interests of the working class as a whole in political terms".

While the plan is likely to be welcomed by the ruling party, it could be difficult to convince union members, many of whom - especially in the education sector - resist evaluation.

Mr Vavi said that was why the task team would have to go beyond declarations and move to action to ensure efficient and proper services. While the majority of public servants worked hard and served the people "with integrity", he said there was "regrettably" a "minority" who remained " careless" and in some instances treated the public "with contempt and abuse".