BusinessLive reports that the economy is set to face collateral damage when finance union Sasbo embarks on a total shutdown of the banking sector on 27 September, but the industry says it has put plans in place to limit the damage.  

The protest comes as the sector is battling job losses and scrambling to digitise its operations.  Standard Bank has been forced to close 91 branches, affecting 1,200 employees, as it realigns its retail and business banking delivery model to be on par with the demands of the fourth industrial revolution.  Other banks could follow if trading conditions worsen.  Sasbo general secretary Joe Kokela said the union’s 73,000 members will embark on industrial action to “prove a point” and to teach the embattled bosses “a costly lesson”.  He maintained that the union has exhausted all avenues in trying to engage with the employers to stop the jobs bloodbath in the sector.  He argued that retrenchments in the sector were not about the fourth industrial revolution but about corporate greed.  “How do you justify someone taking home R258,000 a day just because he’s a bank executive,” Kokela asked.  On Thursday, Cosatu backed Sasbo’s industrial action and said the strike would act as a buildup to the labour federation’s national strike against job losses and retrenchments on 7 October.  It said all its unions would be mobilised to ensure that Sasbo’s shutdown was a success.

• Read the full original of the above report by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive

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