The protracted strike might have provided Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) with the just the right tonic to right size or downsize its workforce (that’s corporate speak for retrenchment, a word unions don’t want to hear). And who would have thought that those who sit in air-conditioned offices with their top-of-the-range ipads would be affected!
Recently, employees who hold middle management positions, some with annual gross salaries of R1 million, got the shock of their lives to discover that their days at the company might be numbered.
One of affected employees told Transform SA in a telephone interview that he got letters informing him to unconditionally accept the option of terminating his contracts with a lumpsum severance payout. He said: “The company will be only retaining those with skills critical to the company’s operations, whatever that means. Our fate is as good as sealed.
“If you don’t leave voluntary, you will be asked to. It’s a situation of damn you do, damn you don’t.”
It’s certain that soon Statistics SA will add more to its figures of the country’s unemployed.
It would be interesting to see how this episode’ will pan out. I also thought the office-confined were untouchables. It seems the ruthelss sword of retrenchement will not spare the ones up there. The severence pay, i am told they are offering is something like R500k, before SARS takes off its dues,bond and car installments do the maths on what will remain. scaring to say the least!