Trade union Solidarity announced on Thursday that thanks to \u201cintense consultations\u201d with black-empowered IT company Gijima\u201a it had succeeded in avoiding forced retrenchments of its members from the company – showing it was \u201cpossible to rise above difficult financial times and ultimately to ensure that employees do not suffer from them\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gijima said in May that it planned to retrench some of its more than 3\u201a000 employees in a bid to save costs and improve efficiency\u201a citing “dramatic changes” in the industry.<\/p>\n
According to Solidarity\u201a Gijima had already retrenched about 200 employees since December last year and the company had planned to retrench another 200 by the middle of August – 14 of whom belonged to Solidarity. Gijima would not disclose the number of employees facing the axe at the time “due to the consultative HR (human resources) processes\u201d the company needed to follow.<\/p>\n
CEO Jonas Bogoshi said the strategy was part of Gijima\u2019s Vision 2025 plan\u201a launched last year\u201a and the first phase of the implementation of the new business structure had resulted in “some role duplication and staff underutilisation”\u201a which the group was now correcting.<\/p>\n
Solidarity spokesperson Moira-Marie Kloppers said: \u201cIt has been a really successful process for us\u201d\u201a with the union succeeding in negotiating voluntary severance packages for seven of the 14 members affected\u201a while another six members were either placed in other positions or retained their posts\u201a although there was still uncertainty regarding one member\u2019s future at the company.<\/p>\n
Zylma Olivier\u201a Group HR manager at Gijima\u201a confirmed the figures and said that while the company was \u201cin the final phases of the process of consultations\u201d regarding the retrenchments announced earlier in the year\u201a there were no further retrenchments planned.<\/p>\n
Kloppers said the union expected that \u201cno Solidarity members will be forcibly retrenched\u201d. Gijima\u2019s successful implementation of measures such as redeployment and reasonable voluntary severance packages \u201cproved that economic setbacks do not necessarily have to lead to the retrenchment of employees\u201a\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Effective communication with employees regarding retrenchements was essential\u201a Kloppers said\u201a adding that the recent suicide of a Cell C employee was the unfortunate result of a lack of communication.<\/p>\n
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