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.
Fin24 reports that SA’s largest tobacco manufacturer, British American Tobacco SA (BATSA), says falling cigarette sales mean it may have to cut another 200 jobs at its local operations.
Since 2020, the company has retrenched more than 30% of its workforce, equating to around 500 positions. It has now entered into retrenchment negotiations relating to a further 200 staff layoffs. BATSA – whose brands include Dunhill, Peter Stuyvesant, Rothmans and Pall Mall – says this is due to a 40% decline in its cigarette sales since the start of the pandemic. The local arm of British American Tobacco (BAT) has long argued that ban on the sale of cigarettes during SA’s pandemic lockdown led to a boom in illegal sales. The tobacco producer believes that the illicit market now accounts for 70% of SA’s total cigarette market. The ban, which was fiercely contested by SA's tobacco industry, was instituted by the government in a bid to lessen the impact of Covid-19 on SA's hospitals. It was later found to be unconstitutional.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Jan Cronje at Fin24
- Read too, British American Tobacco SA may restructure putting 200 jobs at risk, at BusinessLive
- And also, British American Tobacco to retrench workers amid ‘ballooning’ illicit tobacco trade in SA, at The Citizen
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page