BL Premium reports that state-owned PetroSA plans to slash more than a third of its workforce.  

According to the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (Ceppwawu), employees have been issued with notices of a retrenchment process that could affect up to 500 of PetroSA’s 1,424 staffers.  PetroSA’s main business is the extraction and use of offshore natural gas to produce synthetic fuels at the Mossgas facility.  Following unsuccessful and costly gas exploration efforts, PetroSA is in deep financial trouble while its refinery grapples with a dwindling gas supply.  According to Ceppwawu’s Chinaman Melani, the impact of the layoffs will be devastating because every PetroSA worker supports an average of five dependants and the Mossel Bay economy is highly dependent on the refinery.  Melani said the union has been in talks with PetroSA since the second half of last year over how the entity might be saved and a steering committee was established, although it has yet to meet.  He also indicated that the turnaround strategy for the company included a 12-point plan, which appeared not to have been implemented.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lisa Steyn at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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