The embattled South African Post Office has promoted shop stewards who represented workers during negotiations that resulted in more than 6 000 workers being retrenched.
Sunday World has reliably learnt that shop stewards from unions such as the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU), the Democratic Postal Workers Union (Depacu) and the SA Postal Workers Union (Sapwu) were appointed as area managers.
These shop stewards represented workers who fell victim to a massive jobs retrenchment bloodbath during the Post Office section 189 process.
The shop stewards that were appointed as area managers are Tshidi Lethoko from Depacu, Clyde Michael Mervin of CWU and his wife Leilani Mervin, Mbulelo Johannes Klaas of Depacu and Seun Tshabalala of Depacu. Lethoko is the wife of Simon Lethoko, the deputy president of Depacu.
Lethoko, Mervin, Klaas and Tshabalala declined to comment and referred Sunday World to the business rescue practitioners managing the Post Office.
Business rescue practitioner Anoosh Rooplal said there was nothing untoward about the shop stewards being appointed as area managers.
Rooplal said all area managers’ positions were advertised internally to the entire staff of the Post Office and so all staff were given a fair chance to apply.
“Candidates who met the minimum requirements as per the job advertisement were given the opportunity to interview with Post Office leaders and the business rescue employment team to ensure a just and fair process. The fact that some of the successful candidates and related parties were shop stewards had no bearing on the appointment of the managers. Area managers, who represented unions in the bargaining unit were requested to and have stepped down from their representative positions.
“Area managers work closely with the branch managers, mail centre and depot managers and their teams to ensure that mail items and financial services have the adequate support to ensure compliance with financial regulatory requirements and customer service standards. They are to continuously monitor, improve and report on productivity per branch, mail centre and depots,” said Rooplal.
However, former union leader and retrenched workers’ representative Tutu Mokoena said the shop stewards who were appointed area managers “sold out”.
“The workers feel they were sold out. The shop stewards sat [in] the retrenchment negotiations and these unions agreed that there should be retrenchments. They [shop stewards] did not fight the retrenchments. They did not disagree with the retrenchments or offer any recourse for the workers. Later positions of area managers were advertised, and they applied. This is a sell-out position.”.
CWU national bargaining coordinator and acting spokesperson Nathen Bouwers said Mervin was well within his rights to apply for the area manager position. Bouwers said neither Mervin nor the CWU “sold out” its workers.
“As a trade union CWU we tried our level best to mitigate job losses. We wanted the workers to get the TERS (temporary employer/employee relief scheme) but they could not get it. A section 189 process is difficult.
“Workers are always the casualties. As a trade union we cannot stand in the way of any ordinary worker who shows skills and competencies for a particular job and was successful in getting that job.
“It is virtually impossible for one person like Mervin to influence the retrenchment process so that he can be rewarded with a job as an area manager. Mervin’s term as president of CWU ended in 2021. He was an ordinary worker of the post office and he applied for the position. He did not sell out,” said Bouwers.
Why I’m not surprised this is not the first nor the last this is not the first cwu member that was promoted to manager