Parliament is not an authority to determine whether the public broadcaster’s process to retrench 600 permanent staff was premature or not, says the management of the SABC.
The public broadcaster’s head of human resources, Mojaki Mosia, has told unions in a
confidential letter that the corporation did not need the mandate of the august House’s portfolio committee on communications to forge ahead with the process to cut jobs.
Mosia was responding to a letter from Communication Workers Union and the Broadcasting, Electronic, Media & Allied Workers Union (Bemawu) contending that the section 189 process the corporation has embarked on to chop 600 workers and not renew contracts of 1 200 workers was illegal.
Bemawu president Hannes du Buisson urged the SABC to heed the advice of the committee not to retrench workers but rather reskill and upskill them.
Last month, the committee said it believed that the “SABC’s announcement to retrench about 600 staff members is premature, and encouraged the corporation to first consider reskilling and upskilling its workforce”.
“The committee also held a view that SABC should embark on an open and transparent
consultation process with organised labour,” it said.
But the SABC is digging in its heels over its plans to drop the axe, despite increased political pressure, which saw the ANC also warning the public broadcaster last week not to slash jobs but consider beefing up its advertising team, among others.
Mosia said Du Buisson misunderstood the legislative role of parliament with regards to the public broadcaster.
“The function that the portfolio committee performs is an oversight function. As such, it cannot be so that before the SABC proceeds with a section 189 process, it must first finalise with and receive a mandate from the portfolio committee. Consultations are for the very reason that a final decision has not been reached,” said Mosia.
Mosia added that the corporation was compliant with the law and remained committed to that position.
Du Buisson had also argued in the letter that the SABC had, as required by law, failed to
provide alternatives for workers in the notice to terminate their employment. “We seek an immediate undertaking that this illegal consultation will cease, failing which we reserve our rights in terms of the LRA [Labour Relations Act], which may include an urgent interdict,” Du Buisson said.
But Mosia hit back, saying that the engagements the SABC has held with employees, among others, have not been consultations in terms of the section 189 process. “Kindly note that we reject the allegation that the process that we have undertaken so far in respect of the contemplated retrenchments has been in breach of section 189,” he said.
“The SABC remains well within its rights to engage with its employees on matters related to its operations even when the section 189 process is ensuing. It is not necessary that those engagements become elevated to consultations under section 189.”
He said the section 189 notice listed the alternatives that the organisation considered before resorting to job cuts, including reducing the number of consultants, among others.
