SAPO strike has after-effects

Postal workers who do not wish to accept the South African Post Office’s (SAPO) final offer, and who continue to remain on strike, will be dismissed.
This was according to SAPO spokesperson, Johan Kruger after the three month strike came to an end on November 25.
He said the post office in Nigel was operational and the backlog of mail should be caught up within 30 days since the conclusion of the strike. This comes after intensive negotiations with the three labour unions that formed part of the Post Office bargaining unit on November 25.
According to reports received many residents traditionally depend on posted statements when settling their various accounts. The delay in delivery left many unsure of their outstanding balances resulting in municipal services being cut.
“To work off the backlog, employees at the Johannesburg International Mail Centre are working two shifts per day and are currently clearing more than 100 000 items per day. To speed up the clearance of letters coming from abroad, some of the incoming bags containing letters are sent directly to other mail centres for processing and then dispatched to their destinations from there”, Johan said.
Simo Lushaba, leader of the SA Post Office administration team said that the historical laxity has proven to be immensely costly to the overall wellbeing of the SA Post Office, resulting in immeasurable erosion of our value proposition to our customers, our credibility and the economy in general.
“This development will have a direct positive impact on our operations which are already steadily on the upturn as we experienced sharp increases in employee presence at work from mid November. As of December 1, 0.7 percent of the SA Post Office workforce remained absent from work. Consequently, operations at the Nigel post office are now at almost 100 percent capacity”, Lushaba explained.
The two unions that accepted the offer were the South African Postal and Allied Workers’ Union (Sapawu) and the Democratic Postal and Communications Union (DPCU).
The remaining union, the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), has stuck with their demand of a 7,5% increase, implemented with immediate effect and backdated to April this year.
“The post office cannot afford these demands and does not have the ability to meet even the agreed increases, which depend on the restoration of stable operations, recovery and turnaround of operations. We believe that it will be irresponsible for the leadership of the organisation to accede to demands made by the CWU owing to our current financial position”, Lushaba stated.
“The CWU could not accept such an open-ended offer that appeared to only benefit SAPO”, CWU spokesperson Matankana Mothapo said.
“CWU will meet with Cosatu to discuss the best way forward and feel Cosatu is on the workers’ side”, Mothapo added.
Lushaba urged all the remaining employees who were still on strike to return to work immediately in order to proceed with the task of rebuilding SAPO.
He said that they are on course to stabilising the operations and returning them to full capacity, adding that a sustainable SA Post Office can only be possible in a harmonious and collaborative labour relations environment.