Retrenchment letters shatter hopes of post office staff

Retrenchment letters sent to Post Office staff have shattered the hopes of the almost 5,000 workers who had thought a CCMA application would save their jobs.

The workers had even been sent messages advising them to return to the office in anticipation of the Ters (temporary employee/employer relief scheme) relief application being successful.

However, their application was dismissed.

Just a day after returning to the office, the employees received letters stating that the application had been dismissed and that all retrenchment letters that were conditionally retracted would be automatically reinstated. Many burst into tears at the thought of being unemployed.

Joint Business Rescue Practitioners had applied for the Ters relief which would have paid 75% of staff salaries and the Post Office would have paid 25% of salaries. The plan was going to remain in place for a year while the workers were being upskilled and retained for possible job placements elsewhere.

Among the shattered and disappointed employees is a 53-year-old Soweto man who said he had been hopeful when he received an SMS on Monday advising him to return to work no later than May 2.

He and other Post Office employees had been home since March after being served with retrenchment letters and had all along been pinning their hopes on the success of the application.

Just a day after getting the letter advising him to return to work, he was informed that he should not return.

The man, who asked to remain anonymous, had worked as a mail processor at a post office for 28 years, earning R8,000.

“We were hopeful we would not be unemployed,” he said. “When we got letters, people were crying, people couldn’t handle it at all. I also cried.

“The government could have done more to save our jobs because we do so much. We deliver mail, parcels and even chronic medication. We also assist with licence discs and Sassa grants. Now, people’s mails are stuck at the post office. Why retrench us if there is so much work?”

Another ex-employee said he also received a letter on March 28 after being with the Post Office for 15 years.

“The worst thing about it is that I am renting and now I would have to find alternative accommodation. I wasn’t expecting to be retrenched at all, but now I am stressed because I have three kids who go to school and one is in crèche. We pay for their transport and they also have to eat, so it is quite stressful.”

Joint Business Rescue Practitioners’ Anoosh Rooplal said: “We tried our very best and acted in good faith, together with the unions, to make a final attempt to apply for Ters relief funding to limit the impact on possible retrenchments and provide temporary relief for the bargaining unit.

“We are conscious of the turmoil that this application and subsequent rejection will and have caused the bargaining unit staff members and their families and for that we are deeply sorry.”

Cosatu’s Matthew Parks told Sowetan that the union was engaging with relevant government departments to prevent job losses. Parks described the CCMA’s decision as “flawed”, saying it failed to take into account all the relevant workers nor the need to save thousands of postal workers and enable the Post Office to be turned around.  

In his decision, which was communicated on Tuesday, CCMA commissioner committee chairperson Willie Hlophe said the financial challenges brought by the high wage bill were inevitable and could not be remedied by the temporary relief provided for by Ters. 

Professor Shepherd Mpofu from the department of communications at the University of SA said the Post Office could not be saved.

“The Post Office should restructure its business so that it speaks to and also competes with the demands of the current world. The Post Office is forever going to be in trouble because it fails to innovate and reinvent itself.

“I don’t think there is anywhere the Post Office could be saved competitively and it doesn’t depend on the government for bailout and makes money for itself. I don’t think the current business model allows for the Post Office to do that hence we are going to see retrenchments and a lot of other inefficiencies.”

chabalalaj@sowetan.co.za