Anglo takes axe to its senior staff

ANGLO American’s South African office is set for large-scale culling as employees have been asked to apply for different positions, take voluntary retrenchment, early retirement or face getting cut out anyway.

The veteran company, founded in South Africa nearly a century ago, has been reeling from cost pressures locally, aggravated by the marathon strike in its 77%-held platinum arm Amplats. This strike has cost platinum companies more than R16-billion in lost revenue.

CEO Mark Cutifani has previously alluded to Anglo American’s intention to sell off operations in the platinum belt in Rustenburg, a move that would result in further job losses once the strikes are over. Already, the recent restructuring at Amplats has led to 7 500 workers losing their jobs.

Now Anglo American is restructuring its head office — the one part of its business where it does not need to deal with the likes of Joseph Matjunwa and his hostile Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), who rejected Amplats’s most recent settlement offer on Monday.

Business Times has now obtained letters sent to head office employees last month, giving them 10 days to decide whether to apply for voluntary severance or early retirement.

The letter sent to staff said that the offers were generous, and that there should be no expectation of it being repeated. For example, a person working in the technical solutions division who earned R1-million a year for at least 10 years would be paid a lump sum of R500 000 under the offer.

In terms of the restructuring, many positions in departments under head office fell away and new positions were created. As part of this plan, Anglo American created an internal platform dubbed Eureka, where anxious employees could try and match their skills sets with new positions, and had five days to apply.

“Almost everyone has been moved around or moved out, and the air is heavy,” said a source close to the process.

Aggressive restructuring also took place at the company’s main offices in London, where about a third of the work force was cut.

During the presentation in February of Anglo American’s latest set of results, Cutifani said there had been a 30% reduction in staff in the organisation’s top two levels.

“Now, the challenge that that creates is a bit more of a bulge at the next level. It is where this group is focusing on over the next three months to make sure that we’ve got our efficiencies right, and that we’ve got the right people in the right roles,” he said.

Cutifani had previously said: “We are not out there saying we’ve cut this or we’ve cut that, but we’re making significant changes. And the reason we’re not saying we’ve cut this and we’ve cut that, like some, is that we’re sensitive to our employees.”

However, the note sent to staff appeared to be more brutal than sensitive.

It stated clearly that the company had space only for the highly skilled.

“When considering applications [for voluntary retrenchments and early retirements], focus will be applied to ensuring that the company retains employees who have skills and experience the business requires into the future,” it said.