Post Office boss proposes for shorter working hours

SA Post Office employees could have their working hours slashed by up to 40% if the entity's CEO Nomkhita Mona's proposals are implemented next month.

However, Mona rejected the DA's claim she earned more than her predecessor, saying she was making far less.

Mona said one of the strategies the SAPO was looking at was a reduced work week which had been presented to unions.

“We know this is a difficult economy. Things are bad so we’re trying to avoid retrenchments. We’re in the process of saying let's protect jobs as far as we can. It is the inevitable that we do have to cut employment costs at SAPO,” Mona said.

“Perhaps a reduced work week is something we need to do. This means people will work for three days and for the other three days are free to go work elsewhere or even start their own business. Another option is to identify areas within SAPO they can sub-contract and supplement their income,” said Mona.

DA MP Diane Kohler Barnard said Mona earned close to R4m per year which she alleged was almost twice the salary of her predecessor.

But Mona rejected the claim, saying it was “was grossly incorrect and misleading”.

“That number the DA is quoting was for five months he [predecessor] worked in that period. Secondly, he was getting paid way more than I am which raises questions of gender and race,” Mona said.

With 68% of its budget going to pay staff salaries, the SOE could no longer continue the way it has been. This, she said, was unsustainable and would eventually lead to retrenchments.

Barnard criticised the proposal to slash working hours, describing it as “nothing more than constructive dismissal”.

“The SAPO management proposes a two-day weekly reduction, which would result in shift workers who work five days a week working just three days and those who work six days a week working four days. The upshot of this is a stunning 40% gross salary reduction,” Kohler Barnard said.

Mona said the last time SAPO recorded a profit was back in 2004 with the state-owned enterprise having been in distress since.

“SAPO is grossly overstaffed for a number of reasons. During the time when labour brokers became unpopular in the country, it’s SAPO who absorbed all those 8,250 temporary workers.

“SAPO also had a company called CFG [Courier and Freight Group] that was under distress, and it collapsed. There were 708 employees within that company and instead of doing a section 189 which is a retrenchment process, SAPO absorbed those employees.”

With a declining revenue of over 50%, Mona said one of the worst things that happened to SAPO were the contracts the SOE entered into which include the Sassa contract — where pensioners withdraw their money at countrywide post offices.

“Because of SRD [social relief distress grant], long queues and the Sassa contract, some of our business... the other business lines of SAPO suffered immensely because people stayed away, they went elsewhere.

“Also, this government has to give us business because also by law, every parcel smaller than 1kg is the mandate of SAPO. But because we didn’t do it at the time, there were new entrants and the private sector came in and stole our lunch but it doesn’t make it legal... It’s illegal for them to do it,” she said.

DA MP Diane Kohler Barnard criticised the proposal to slash working hours, describing it as “nothing more than constructive dismissal”.

“The SAPO management proposes a two-day weekly reduction, which would result in shift workers who work five days a week working just three days and those who work six days a week working four days. The upshot of this is a stunning 40% gross salary reduction,” Kohler Barnard said.

Mona said the last time SAPO recorded a profit was back in 2004 with the state-owned enterprise having been in distress since.

“SAPO is grossly overstaffed for a number of reasons. During the time when labour brokers became unpopular in the country, it’s SAPO who absorbed all those 8,250 temporary workers.

“SAPO also had a company called CFG [Courier and Freight Group] that was under distress, and it collapsed. There were 708 employees within that company and instead of doing a section 189 which is a retrenchment process, SAPO absorbed those employees.”

With a declining revenue of over 50%, Mona said one of the worst things that happened to SAPO were the contracts the SOE entered into which include the Sassa contract — where pensioners withdraw their money at countrywide post offices.

“Because of SRD [social relief distress grant], long queues and the Sassa contract, some of our business... the other business lines of SAPO suffered immensely because people stayed away, they went elsewhere.

“Also, this government has to give us business because also by law, every parcel smaller than 1kg is the mandate of SAPO. But because we didn’t do it at the time, there were new entrants and the private sector came in and stole our lunch but it doesn’t make it legal... It’s illegal for them to do it,” she said.