The ailing South African Post Office (Sapo) said yesterday it was overstaffed and could not carry staff expenses, hence it would seek options to cut staff costs.
This as the DA shadow minister Dianne Kohler Barnard yesterday alerted media that Sapo aimed to cut staff salaries by 40% as of next month.
When contacted by Business Report Sapo did not address the salaries cut, but said several strategies and options were currently being considered as staff cost reduction was unavoidable.
The group said it was unsustainable for Sapo to carry staff expenses accounting for 68% of its expenditure.
The parastatal said it had over the past number of years seen a substantial decline in letter volumes, which was in line with international trends and a decline in revenue.
"While new products, such as the renewal of motor vehicle licences, partly compensate for this decline, the Post Office has always been overstaffed, owing to a number of reasons, including the absorption of 8250 temporary employees when labour brokers became undesirable; another 708 employees were absorbed from its courier division, Courier Freight Group (CFG), when it was dismantled,“ it said.
“A number of strategies and options are currently being considered. These include a reduced work week, meaning that employees would be free to supplement their incomes in other ways – including within Sapo, and a voluntary severance package process is already underway,” Sapo said.
These measures were aimed at cutting employment costs while saving some jobs, while at the same time delaying a process of forced retrenchments.
“We have also learnt that the current CEO today earns nearly R4 million per year, almost twice as much as her predecessor did in 2020. The CEO earns R3.9 million and the non-executive board members also live in the lap of luxury with a collective annual amount of R2.7 million,” Kohler Barnard said.
Sapo this year had so far incurred a loss of R2.3 billion, while still owing the Postbank R3.2bn, she said.
Kohler Barnard said in an attempt to cut costs, the management was considering cutting hours of work, effectively meaning the cutting of salaries.
“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,“ she said.
Kohler Barnard said this was nothing more nor less than constructive dismissal.
But according to Sapo the statement regarding the CEO’s remuneration was misleading.
“The 2020 annual report reflects the salary that the previous CEO received for the five months that he served during the relevant financial year. The reality is that the current group CEO earns less than her predecessor,” it said.
On the amount that Sapo owes to the Postbank, Sapo said it was a historic debt dating back to the time when the Postbank was a division of the Sapo.
“Notably, the separation of Postbank left the Post Office with an enormous loss of assets for which the Post Office was never compensated. We are engaging government in this regard,” it said.
Meanwhile, trade unions the Democratic Postal and Communications Union and the South African Postal Workers’ Union declined to comment and said the matter was still internal, but in emails to Sapo seen by the Business Report, dated January 11, the unions said it came to their attention that there was a process underway to cut hours of work and days of work without consultation of the unions.
“We view that as a mischievous attempt from management to ignore consultations and attempt to unilaterally impose changes on conditions of employment of which we reject that attempt without hesitation,“ the emails stated.
BUSINESS REPORT