SA Post Office employees neglected by government – Cosatu

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has accused the government of subjecting SA Post Office (Sapo) employees to abuse and neglect ahead of the impending retrenchment of 6 000 workers.

According to Cosatu, forcing workers to take a 40% salary cut while the mismanagement and destruction continue was “nothing short of scandalous.”

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“It is heartbreaking to witness the neglect and the disdain to which the 14 000 Post Office workers have been subjected to. 

“Management has not only presided over decaying and collapsing infrastructure but has continuously sought to destroy any possibility of revival by closing branches and thus drastically reducing its footprint across the nation and its customer base,” Cosatu said.

R9b debt

The once-trusted Sapo is currently under business rescue after it was placed in provisional liquidation last year because it failed to pay its creditors.

It has become the fourth state-owned entity to be placed in business rescue following years of corruption and mismanagement.

Sapo struggled to pay salaries and third parties such as medical aid schemes and pension funds.

Cosatu urged law enforcement authorities to investigate the entity.

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“The pending retrenchments come as management fails to pay workers their backpay and denies them access to medical aid services by fraudulently failing to transfer contributions despite the deductions.

“This is a criminal offence that the Hawks, Sars [South African Revenue Service], Saps [South African Police Service] and NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] need to be seized with.”

In February last year, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana allocated R2.4 billion to help bail out Sapo.

The entity reported accumulated losses of R19 billion for the last 16 years.

Its debt is at a staggering R9,4b. It owes a combined R400 million to landlords, R697 million in unpaid pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) tax to SA Revenue Services (Sars).

‘Compensate workers’

Furthermore, Cosatu is of the view that Post Office workers should be compensated following the entity’s separation from the Post Bank.

“Government must recapitalise the Post Office and Postbank to give them a fair chance and the necessary liquidity to compete in their sectors. 

“National, provincial and local government and other SOEs [state-owned enterprises] need to play a role in utilising the Post Office and Postbank as their preferred service providers.

“Sassa also needs to pay its fair share to the Post Office for the cost of its disbursement of billions of Rands every month to social grant recipients,” the federation said.

Anooshkumar Rooplal and Juanito Martin Damons were appointed as joint interim business rescue practitioners.

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