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Friday, 22 March 2019 06:25

The Citizen reports that trade union confederation Cosatu says the decision by Standard Bank to close 91 of its branches and retrench more than 1,000 employees countrywide has reinforced its call for the Labour Relations Act to be amended to make it impossible to lay off employees easily.

Last week, Standard Bank, the biggest lender in Africa by assets, said it plans to close offices and retrench about 1 200 staff by the end of June. The move was necessitated by the need to digitalise its commercial and business bank.

This came not long after the bank’s shareholders were handsomely rewarded after a 5% increase to R12.7 billion in headline earnings for the six months to June 2018. An interim dividend of 430c a share was declared, an increase of 8% compared to 2017.

The profits were attributed to its external operations, making up a footprint in 20 countries on the continent.

It is feared the decision to close offices and retrench staff could trigger a domino effect, with other banks following suit as banking was shifting to internet and mobile banking which had rendered some staff redundant.

On Sunday, the labour federation’s spokesperson, Sizwe Pamla, condemned the bank’s decision.  “We reiterated our position that we need to amend the Labour Relations Act that allows this to be possible,” Pamla said.

The EFF also entered the fray and condemned the Standard Bank’s move describing it as “misguided and unethical”.

It said it was the second time in a week that the “banking cartel” was exposed, referring to them as “blood-sucking money-hungry industry” that was only accountable to its shareholders.

The EFF attributed to the expose that indicated that FNB had deliberately overcharged its black clients over the years for apparently being risky. The matter, exposed by financial investigator Emerald van Zyl was before the Equality Court and was being investigated by the SA Human Rights Commission.

EFF national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said: “From overcharging black clients to cutting jobs, the South African banking industry continues to show its colours and its unabated willingness to place profit over people.”

According to Ndlozi, as the unemployment rate was sitting at an expanded rate of 37% as per the latest quarterly survey, it could not afford to lose jobs.

“SA’s banking cartel has never and will never care about South African people,” he said. “Standard Bank’s actions are a clear indication of how incompetent government is ... When the EFF takes over government in May, we will place a moratorium on all retrenchments, even by the private sector.”

The original of this report by Eric Naki appeared on page 2 of The Citizen of 18 March 2019

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Monday, 18 March 2019 06:19

City Press reports that state employees will soon be able to retire early with no penalties, but conditions apply.

In his budget speech on 20 February, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced an early retirement scheme for public servants, where members of the Government Employees’ Pension Fund (GEPF) could take early retirement without penalties. According to the public service early retirement framework, the offer for early retirement will begin on April 1 and will stand until September 30. At that time, Treasury will assess whether there are sufficient resources to continue with the offer for the remaining two years of the medium-term expenditure framework.

The process to apply for early retirement is open to all public servants between the ages of 55 and 59. Employees in the police, correctional services, defence and intelligence sectors will qualify in terms of their own legislation.

However, each application will be considered on its merits and it does not automatically mean you will qualify. Firstly, it is limited to 30 000 applications, which will be filtered based on skills, efficiency and personal circumstances.

According to the document, “skills are a priority requirement and therefore the skill set will be considered and these employees will not be allowed to leave yet”.

This could affect members with critical skills, including medical doctors, nurses, maths and science teachers, engineers, and other professionals categorised under “occupation specific dispensation”.

Efficiencies in each sector will be considered – in other words, the department will need to ensure they can “deliver services uninterrupted if they allow the employee to exit according to the post provisioning norms”.

The framework document makes it clear that this is not a retrenchment process, but forms part of the public administration reform initiative “to bring about efficiency gains without job losses and to bring on board unemployed young people who need to enter the job market, while balancing the needs of older employees who have been asking to be allowed to leave without any penalties to their monthly pension”.

The early retirement scheme will cost government approximately R16 billion, but will save about R20.3 billion in the wage bill over the three years within which the medium-term expenditure framework will take place.

The original of this report by Maya Fisher-French appeared on page 9 of City Press Business of 17 March 2019

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Thursday, 14 March 2019 12:37

Sowetan reports that “How much do you want to go away?” was a question that retired Constitutional Court judge Zak Yacoob repeatedly asked the axed director of the KZN Blind and Deaf Society to persuade her to drop her case at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

Yacoob – who is the society’s president – tells Shamilla Surjoo to record their telephonic conversation so that it can go “all over the internet”.

Sowetan’s sister publication, TimesLIVE is in possession of the recording, which has been confirmed by both parties. Yacoob called Surjoo on March 1 to discuss her CCMA challenge following her dismissal for gross negligence, breach of fiduciary duties and loss of trust after a financial officer allegedly transferred R12m into her personal accounts.

While Surjoo, who is legally blind, was not implicated in the fraud and claimed to have blown the whistle on the financial officer, an independent disciplinary committee dismissed her on the grounds that it had occurred under her watch. This led to Surjoo lodging a complaint with the CCMA in order to be reinstated.

When Yacoob asked her during the call how much money she required to “go away”, Surjoo replied that she could not be bought.  Yacoob said:  “I am disgusted that I trusted you, so now, how much do you want to go away? Please man.”

Surjoo referred Yacoob to her lawyer. “I don’t want to talk to your lawyer, I am talking to you. So tell me, how much do you want?” he asked again.

Yacoob went on to send Surjoo text messages asking her again to “name the amount”. He offered to pay it from his personal bank account. Three days later, on March 4, Yacoob sent a letter of apology to Surjoo via her attorney. Yacoob said that he could not comment on the recording, text messages or his offer to pay Surjoo to drop her CCMA case.

The original of this report by Nivashni Nair appeared on page 2 of Sowetan of 14 March 2019

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Wednesday, 13 March 2019 13:43

The Star reports that a small army of workers are gearing up to bring media house Tiso Blackstar to a standstill on Thursday if the company does not pay its black journalists their bonuses and salary increases.

Information Communication and Technology Union (Ictu) president Moeketse Lepheane told Independent Media yesterday a line in the sand had been drawn between employees and senior management after the company took a hard stance on those embarking on industrial action.

Ictu is an affiliate of the SA Federation of Trade Unions.

Lepheane said a last-ditch attempt by the Zondo Commission of Inquiry to resolve the matter would be made within the next 24 hours to try to find common ground between employees and senior management.

The commission is housed at the premises of Tiso Blackstar.

The company’s labour woes stem from an internal memo, where its black journalists accused it of ill treatment, freezing salary increases and discriminatory pay disparities, all along racial lines.

“Starting on March 14, employees of Tiso, along with Saftu-affiliated unions, will be embarking on a strike in solidarity with black journalists who have not been paid their bonuses.

“We are expecting 6,000 union members at the Tiso Blackstar offices,” Lepheane said.

He said the desired outcome was that the company pay journalists their bonuses.

“There are also pay disparities, where whites get paid more than black people.

“What we have uncovered is that from entry level, a white person will earn double what a black person earns within the first six months of employment,” said Lepheane.

Tiso Blackstar managing director Andrew Gill said the union had issued a notice to strike from tomorrow, following a dispute concerning the non-payment of bonuses to staff.

“The company did, in fact, award bonuses to those divisions that met the criteria, as well as award discretionary bonuses to top performers.” He said the company was still prepared to engage with employees.

The company has applied a no work, no pay policy towards the industrial action and said all employees who participated in the strike would have to pay their own monthly medical aid, pension and provident fund contributions.

The original of this report by Ayanda Mdluli appeared on page 2 of The Star of 13 March 2019

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Wednesday, 06 March 2019 13:23

Sowetan reports that the breakdown in relations between the vice-chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology and a senior director has led to the latter walking away with a R4m settlement. Mpho Diago left with a settlement, seen by Times Select, worth two years of his salary and his ongoing studies being paid for.

He and the vice-chancellor, Professor Gordon Zide, have been clashing since 2017 when Zide was appointed as head of VUT. The settlement states that their working relationship had broken down and both agreed to “terminate the employment contract and resolve [their] dispute”.

Diago was paid out last week and left the university, and has withdrawn a case of victimisation before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), he told Times Select. University spokesperson Mike Khuboni said senior human resources staff and management had tried to resolve issues between the vice-chancellor and his staff member but Diago would not “smoke a peace pipe”.

In November, Diago complained in a letter to the council, the institution’s highest authority, about the running of the university and asked minister of higher education Naledi Pandor to get involved. He alleged fraud, mismanagement and breach of human resource policies.

He has now lodged a complaint at the public protector and is waiting for the council to investigate the issues he raised, as ordered by Pandor. He has handed over his alleged evidence to union Nehawu, which said publicly last week it would send it to the minister of higher education, the ANC and the police. The initial settlement, which Diago rejected, subjected him to a confidentiality agreement for 20 years. It proposed that the vice-chancellor and Diago “cease any direct or indirect investigations” into each other. The final settlement had no confidentiality clauses.

Khuboni says this shows how the university worked with Diago to negotiate a mutually beneficial agreement. Diago said the university was struggling financially and should not have paid him so much to leave. Yet he conceded he took the settlement. In fact, e-mails show he was asked to propose the terms of it and suggested two years of pay.

He said that “given safety issues and all I have done to report these issues [of alleged corruption], the safe and logical thing for me was to accept the settlement and leave”. He asked Nehawu to help him open a case regarding threats to his safety, and provided it with a detailed affidavit about the threats, which Times Select has seen.

Zide told Times Select he felt targeted by employees who wanted to “tarnish his name” in the media.

This, he believed, was because of the forensic investigation he ordered into the university.

• The original of this report by Katharine Child appeared on page 7 of Sowetan of 6 March 2019

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