Sonja Vorster

I am addressing this article to the people in power, the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Managing Directors (MDs) and the staff. In recent times, our town has undergone hundreds of retrenchments, and now yet again with short-time from large companies.

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The decline in the economy, recent VAT increases, house rental increases, municipal increases (with no and or poor service delivery), petrol/diesel/paraffin/gas increases right in time for winter, food price increases, medical increases, school fee increases, etc.

You name it, it has gone up. And now the National Minimum Wage in May.

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The only thing that seems to have remained constants is the complaint that companies are experiencing a state of just keeping nose above water and employees are experiencing that they cannot come out with their salaries and wages. Those are the lucky ones that are not on short-time.

This sad state of affairs is having a major psychological impact on our town’s people. And the families affected are experiencing not only anxiety but depression and some contemplating suicide.

When a bread-winner, or single person works, job security is one of the most primary and basic needs in our society. Without income, all falls apart and the family structure crumbles. Added to this, the unemployment market is already over-flowing. When companies, especially large companies, introduce short-time, each company has an obligation to look after the socio-economical state of the staff in their employment.

Short-time is on a ‘no work no pay basis’ and other forms of either being laid off or extended time off without pay, cuts in overtime, no bonuses being paid or little or no increase in salaries.

Many smaller employers are reducing numbers.

The list of measures to avoid lay-offs, short-time, retrenchments, and dismissals is vast and dependent on the employer and the industry the employer is operating in.

Much is written and available about the rights of the employees and the measures that can be taken to avoid these drastic steps.

The point I would like to focus on in this article is that having an ear to the ground and hearing the complaints from staff finding themselves in these predicaments is, among others, that:

Senior management has lost touch with the ground level operation. People that have many years’ experience and have seen most of the attempts being made to get production going, feel that their hands are tied and they are not being listened to.

If something have been tried a number of times and it does not work, it does not help to kick a dead horse with the hope it will hopefully with the next kick get up and do the work again and you will have another result. If companies can see that they are going to go under, use your Human Resources departments to assist in work-seeking for your employees. Many employees do not have the resources or knowledge to set up basic documents such as CV’s.
Make this available with training on interview techniques.

When people are sitting at home, use one or two artisans to train a group of workers in the skills of welding, bricklaying, brush-cutting, erecting fencing, painting and there is a magnitude of other workable basic skills that can be taught to equip these potential unemployed people that may or may not lose their jobs if the companies do not come right.

And these skills can add to skills that can be used in your own workplace without having to hire other outside people. These workers can sign up and come in on their own time, without pay, whilst on short time and learn a skill and the company can issue certificates of competency.

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Offer counselling sessions for people that are starting to feel that they have no hope for the future.

Managing Directors, they are your employees and you have a responsibility ….do something, provide a hope, let your staff see that there are other ways to earn an income, apart from only relying on the only place they saw as the place they will devote their work life to and retire one day.

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Not only can you, as the MD or CEO, create a new enthusiasm but also a positive feeling of hope among very depressed and negative people in your employment.

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