This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
The Sunday Times reports that according to unions, the move to save billions of rands by the end of March 2021 by cutting the government's bloated wage bill could cost SA dearly in loss of skilled personnel and institutional knowledge.
Civil servants such as teachers, police officers, prison officials and soldiers aged 55 to 59 can apply from next month until the end of September for early retirement packages. According to the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), 136,833 public servants were in the applicable age group. This included 54,460 teachers, 14,043 nurses, 9,630 police officers, 2,325 prisons employees, 745 doctors and 97 engineers. Thousands of public servants are expected to take up the offer of voluntary early retirement, sparking fears that it could cause huge staff shortages across the public sector. Richard Mamabolo of the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said offering the packages would worsen the staff shortage. “The prison population is increasing but the staff complement has declined,” he observed. Sibongiseni Delihlazo of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) pointed out that it took years to replace nurse who leave. The SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) said removing older public servants who have invaluable experience “will deplete the intellectual capital of the public service.” The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA (Naptosa) feared the offer would result in an “exodus” of experienced teachers. A DPSA spokesperson said service delivery would not be affected as the government would ensure the process was done in “a balanced and responsible manner.” She explained that not all applicants would be granted and the government “will ensure that those with critical skills such as medical doctors, nurses, maths and science teachers, engineers and other professionals are not lost.”
- Read the full original of Prega Govender’s report in the above regard on page 10 of The Sunday Times of 24 March 2019
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