Sonja Vorster

With recent talks of large scale retrenchments taking place in Estcourt by the municipality, and some smaller firms, fear and insecurities grip at the hearts of employees.
Employees are presented with options such as taking a percentage reduction on the rate of pay. This is all good and well and may prolong employment.

ALSO READ: Labour Buzz: Shame on you, UIF Department of Labour

However the question should be asked, if employees are prepared to take the option of a reduction of pay, would it not be fair that this payment reduction is for a set period of time? Six months for example.
What happens in practice however is that salaries are reduced by agreement but never reviewed again to set the salaries to the scales it should be when the objectives are reached and the companies or organisations recover.
The second aspect that should be negotiated during the consultative process in the prevention of job losses is that if the employees are willing to reduce salaries, is management prepared to do the same?

Surely what is “good for the goose is good for the gander”? Are they prepared to reduce the massive expenses such as in the case of municipalities, councillor’s salaries, benefits, Municipal Manager’s salaries, Mayor’s salaries, and the thorn in everybody’s side, the number of bodyguards or trade-in expensive vehicles to more economical vehicles?

At the end of the day, management and council are the ones that made decisions, which let to disaster.
They were responsible to ensure that a company or organisation such as the municipality runs smoothly and that includes the fiscal.

If management fails in this task, due to overspending, corruption or lack of knowledge, the reduction of staff and wage bill is and definite option in the reduction of expenditure. But during the consultation process, ALL the parties need to be presented with correct facts and figures, and the management section of the organisation should be prepared to take a higher cut in wages as they are costing the organisation the most when it comes to the wage bill. And they were ultimately responsible for the mess.

The workers on the other had must take onus for what they are responsible for. Lack of productivity, wastage and overstaffing in departments.

But the point I am attempting to highlight in LABOUR BUZZ this week is that the consultation process must be a genuine coming to the table and finding a solution to reduce cost drastically, by ALL the role players and they “do not just throw the baby out with the bathwater”.

NOW READ: Labour Buzz: Hairdressing and Beauty Industry Bargaining Council

Click to receive news links via WhatsApp. Or for the latest news, visit our webpage or follow us on Facebook and Twitter