Cape Town – The South African Post Office (Sapo) said the number of workers set to be retrenched was now 3 000, half of the 6 000 that was planned before.
Sapo said this was because some staff members had opted to take packages, some had resigned and others took early retirement.
The company said the retrenchments formed part of a turnaround strategy that would include the cutting of staff salaries by as much as 40%. This was an effort to reduce employee costs and ensure the entity's viability after it suffered a R2.3 billion deficit in the previous fiscal year.
Speaking to eNCA, Sapo CEO Nomkhita Mona said that in the past week it had served a formal notice to invoke the section 189 process of the Labour Relations Act.
“This notice we are serving is not the first one that we are serving, only that this is the formal one because it is accompanied by the form that comes from the CCMA.
“In November last year we did actually write to the union, giving out our intentions to invoke the same clause of the Labour Relations Act,” Mona said.
She said Sapo was still engaging with the unions and there were several options it was considering as a company.
“However, we thought it would be important for the employer to start the process because the process would take almost three months,” she said.
Communications Workers Union (CWU) general secretary Aubrey Tshabalala said earlier that the union would be challenging the planned retrenchments by the company.
“This happens at a time when we are in discussions around the 40% salary cut or hours of work. So what does it paint to us, it paints a very indecisive management that a week back you were thinking of cutting salaries,” he said.
“A week later you are now thinking of dismissing almost everyone in the bargain area, meaning that those who are basically doing the actual work in the post office, almost all of them are facing a dismissal.”
IOL