Workers mobilise over Post Office retrenchments
The post office’s bid for relief from the Temporary Employer/ Employee Relief Scheme or TERS has also failed.
A police nyala with a heavy police officer presence seemed combat-ready last
Thursday at the entrance of South African Post Office in Landdros Maré Street, as some of the retrenched SA Post Office (SAPO) employees stopped activities at the branch. It was an extension of their demonstrations against what they term “the employer’s refusal to consider their demands related to retrenchment packages”.
Around 5 000 workers countrywide were served with retrenchment notices in April.
One of the workers who spoke to Polokwane Observer, Moraba Choshi said they intend to continue with a countrywide mobilisation as the state-owned entity plans to pay retrenchment packages quarterly and not as a lump sum.
The post office’s bid for relief from the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme or TERS has also failed, putting planned massive job cuts at the state entity back on the table, with more than 300 workers in the province having stopped going to work on May 3.
Moraba said they are going to meet with the leadership of the EFF in the province today to discuss a programme of action, particularly on their application at the
Labour Court to challenge the retrenchments and the possible strike action. They had previously informed Polokwane Observer about their talks with a prominent legal advocate to represent them in court and were in a process of fee collection to pay for legal fees.
In an attempt to limit the number of employees affected by the retrenchments, the negotiating parties approached the Department of Labour’s Single Adjudication Committee in what the Joint SAPO Business Rescue Practitioners (BRP) said was a final attempt to pursue its application for the TERS. The TERS application commenced during the provisional liquidation status of the Post Office.
On April 24, on their behalf, Louise Brugman said should the TERS application be successful, the bargaining unit employees will have 75% of their salaries paid from this fund while 25% of their salaries will be paid by the Post Office for a period of no more than 12 months. The commencement date and the applicable period of the financial relief will be known once the committee provides the BRP’s with its decision.