Post Office salary cuts condemned
Cosatu's acting national spokesperson and parliamentary coordinator, Matthew Parks said forcing workers to take devastating 40% salary cuts while the management oversees the staggering mismanagement and systematic destruction of the once well-respected Post Office is nothing short of scandalous.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) recently came out to condemn the South African Post Office’s (SAPO) strategies to reduce its ‘unsustainable” staff bill.
SAPO communications manager Johan Kruger confirmed that they are considering strategies to reduce the ‘unsustainable’ staff bill, which currently accounts for 68% of its expenditure.
Kruger said these considerations include cutting staff salaries by reducing the work week of some staff members, and a voluntary severance package process which is already underway.
Cosatu’s acting national spokesperson and parliamentary coordinator, Matthew Parks said forcing workers to take devastating 40% salary cuts while the management oversees the staggering mismanagement and systematic destruction of the once well-respected Post Office is nothing short of scandalous.
Parks said this says something in a nation which has seen no shortage of callous and incompetent CEOs.
He said the pending retrenchments of 6 000 postal workers comes on the back of management failing to pay workers their backpay and denying them access to their medical aid services by fraudulently failing to transfer their contributions to their scheme despite deducting them.
“This is a criminal offence that the Hawks, SARS, SAPS and National Prosecuting Authority need to be tasked with. It is heartbreaking to witness the neglect and the disdain to which the Post Office workers have been subjected. Management has not only presided over decaying and collapsing infrastructure but has continuously sought to destroy any possibility of the Post Office’s revival by closing branches and thus drastically reducing its footprint across the nation and its customer base. We agree with Cosatu’s affiliate, the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU) that the Post Office should have been compensated after the separation of the Post Bank from the Post Office,” said Parks.
He added that they call on the government to work with the union to find an amicable solution and take seriously the issues they have been raised about their working conditions.
Parks said the government needs to take the issue of rebuilding state capacity more seriously if the economy and the nation are to recover from the period of state capture, corruption and political vandalism.
He said allowing political principals to sleepwalk through life while their portfolios implode is a recipe for disaster, adding that parliament must move with speed to pass the Post Office Amendment Bill and the government table implement the Postbank Amendment Bill at Parliament.
Parks said these two laws are critical to repivoting the Post Office and Post Bank if they are to be able to grow and thrive, adding that government must recapitalise the Post Office and Post Bank to give them a fair chance and the necessary liquidity to compete in their sectors.
“Government at all levels from national, provincial to local, from SOEs to entities; needs to play its role in utilising the Post Office and Post Bank as their preferred service providers. This is important if these institutions are to have a fighting chance of stabilising and being succeeding. Sassa too needs to pay its fair share to the Post Office for the cost of its disbursement of billions of Rands every month to the millions of social grant recipients. Cosatu will continue to work with CWU to implement to defend collective bargaining and demand better wages and improved working conditions for workers,” said Parks.
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