The South African Post Office (SAPO) says that it has no plans to retrench employees but will instead look at other ways of reducing labour costs.<\/p>\n
In a statement on Thursday (14 November) the SAPO said that it has, in consultation with employees and the unions, embarked on a program in which it has offered voluntary severance packages to qualifying employees and 776 applications have been approved.<\/p>\n
“The total severance packages cost is R130 million and the annual savings on labour costs through this program is R204 million,” it said,<\/p>\n
“SAPO is also investigating other measures of attaining as much flexibility and variability as possible in relation to its labour costs structure, for example in the utilisation of overtime and the sum of this cost item which currently amount to R42 million per annum.”<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni signalled last month he\u2019s intent on lowering the government\u2019s payroll costs, which consume 35% of national spending.<\/p>\n
The cuts are part of a plan to defend the nation\u2019s last remaining investment-grade credit rating, which has a negative outlook.<\/p>\n