A union representing workers of the cash-strapped Post Office has slammed government’s decision to pay their salaries through the department of labour’s Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) for six months.
This comes after the chairperson of the portfolio committee on communications and digital technologies, Khusela Sangoni Diko, said the approval of six months of income support to the Post Office workers was “a much-needed lifeline that the state is both morally and duty-bound to extend”.
Tutu Mokoena, the secretary general of Integrated Communications Workers Union said it was unlawful for the Department of Labour and Employment, through its entity the Unemployment Insurance Fund, to extend Ters to the Post Office under current circumstances.
“By law, Ters is a temporary relief for you not to retrench workers. The Post Office retrenched workers on March 30, 2024. After retrenching the workers, the company applied for Ters in April 2024. However, the Post Office retracted the retrenchments, pending the Ters application. However, the application was declined on April 30,” said Mokoena.
“What made the first Post Office Ters application fail? It is because they had already retrenched workers. So, was the Post Office intending to retrench workers again, is that why they made an application for Ters?”
Mokoena said the communications portfolio committee was being misled into thinking it is right for the labour department to pay Ters to the Post Office without any threat of retrenchments.
“This means the Post Office has handed over its workers to the labour department while the entity no longer carries the burden of salaries for the next six months. Why would the department of labour pay salaries of any company without any proof that the company cannot pay salaries?”
Malatsi’s spokesperson Kwena Moloto said the primary purpose of the Ters application was to prevent further retrenchments while Sapo, focuses on turnaround efforts, revenue generation, and exploring new partnership opportunities.
The revelation that the state-owned postal services entity was struggling to pay salaries comes after communications minister Solly Malatsi revealed in his response to parliamentary question that the Post Office business rescue practitioners have up to September 2024 been paid R141-million for their services.
Sangoni Diko told Sunday World that the Post Office had requested bailouts in two tranches. The first was R2.4-billion, which was paid, and the second R3.8-billion, which the National Treasury has not paid. The latter amount was meant to return the Post Office to full liquidity and solvency.
“It is for that reason we are saying if they get the R381-million it gets to pay employees a period of six months and allows them to then have options: for what do they do with that almost R400-million.
“They might want to pay statutory creditors like medical aids, Sars etc, and in that way then they can be out of business rescue, and work on rebuilding,” said Sangoni Diko.
She added that the business rescue process should be wound up, saying she doesn’t think the Post Office can justify the amount it pays the BRPs.
“The BRPs have done some great work. The post office was about R4-billion in debt and through the business rescue process they have managed to reduce that to R484-million,” said Sangoni Diko.
Cosatu also welcomed the Ters’ decision to cover 75% of the wages of the Post Office’s 6 027 employees over the next six months whilst Sapo undertakes its turnaround plans.
