RETRENCHMENTS WILL be unavoidable in Spoornet's restructuring campaign, but this should not be seen in the alarming light of the suggested
27 000 workers being cast into the pool of unemployment, says chief executive officer Zandile Jakavula.
There are many ways in which we can reduce our working staff, but that does not signify mass unemployment, he says. We have already selected many areas where we will be privatising fully or partly some of our operations. In each case we will encourage the purchaser to take over the staff involved in that sector.
Areas such as the Blue Train which is to be sold outright, our security system which is to be outsourced, the concessioning of some of our lines which we find unproductive, and the partial privatisation of Coallink and Orelink fall under this consideration.
In each case the existing staff represents the qualified personnel needed to continue with the operation. They can go along with the sale of the service.
Jakavula says 832 unproductive jobs were identified during the first quarter of this year and declared redundant. The decision to retrench these people was communicated at the time to central government.
We later found that there were people who were still working after they had gone on pensions and others who were classified as contract workers with open-ended arrangements. Some of them have had other contracts for two years and more.
All these people were released by agreement at the end of April, and a moratorium has been imposed on employment except in cases where an application to fill a critical post has been supported.
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