The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA) are escalating their fight against the 9.5% GEMS contribution increase, warning that the scheme’s refusal to heed organised labour’s demands is pushing public servants deeper into financial distress at a time when the cost of living is already unbearable.

Far from responding to the outcry from workers, GEMS has dismissed the central demands raised by organised labour. These included a reversal of the 2026 increase, meaningful engagement with labour, transparency on the basis for the hikes, and an approach that recognises the deep affordability crisis facing public servants. Instead, GEMS has carried on as if the anger and hardship of workers count for nothing.

COSATU and FEDUSA wish to make it clear that this campaign has not stopped. GEMS ignored it. If anything, the urgency is now greater. Public servants have just received salary increases of 4%, but for many workers that adjustment is not even visible in their pockets. It has already been swallowed by the exorbitant GEMS increase. Workers who had hoped for even the slightest relief are finding that what came in through one hand has been taken out through the other.

This is happening in the middle of a punishing cost of living crisis. Food prices remain high. Transport costs continue to bite. Electricity is unaffordable for millions. Debt is tightening its grip on working households. In this context, a 9.5% medical aid increase is not an ordinary administrative matter. It is a direct blow to workers’ income, their dignity and their access to healthcare.

This campaign is also becoming bigger than GEMS alone. COSATU and FEDUSA are taking a stand against the rising cost of medical aid coverage in South Africa more broadly. What is happening at GEMS reflects a wider crisis in which healthcare is becoming unaffordable even for working people with jobs, leaving families to downgrade cover, absorb impossible monthly increases, or fall out of private healthcare altogether.

This is no longer only a GEMS issue. It is now a public issue about the rising cost of staying healthy in South Africa. That is why COSATU and FEDUSA have now joined hands in a united effort to force GEMS to reverse this increase. This is no longer a matter that can be left to isolated outrage or piecemeal engagements. Organised labour is consolidating its strength because public servants cannot be expected to carry a burden this severe in silence, and because the broader question of healthcare affordability can no longer be postponed.

Our preference remains a political, legal and negotiated resolution. But there must be no misunderstanding. If those efforts do not produce a meaningful outcome, organised labour is ready to mobilise for mass protest action that will bring the public service to a standstill. Workers cannot be pushed to the wall and then told to accept it as normal.

GEMS must come to its senses. It cannot continue pricing workers out of healthcare while pretending that the consequences are manageable. The current increase is excessive, unjust and unsustainable, and must be reversed. COSATU and FEDUSA will continue to intensify this joint campaign until GEMS is compelled to listen.

Issued jointly by COSATU and FEDUSA