... as restructuring is completed
JOB LOSSES at Spoornet as a result of the restructuring of the rail parastatal will be in the region of 8000 and certainly nowhere near the previously projected figure of 27 000, says public enterprises minister Jeff Radebe.
Announcing that the restructuring to increase operational efficiencies had now been completed, Radebe said the 8000 jobs would be phased out during the next four years, and would be completed by 2006.
In many instances these will involve early retirements and the elimination of positions which no longer fit into the modernisation of the rail authority. At the same time a number of personnel are to be moved from an area where they are no longer required to positions where their experience and capabilities are found to be of value.
There was an outcry at the announcement that up to 27 000 employees might be retrenched. Radebe said intense negotiations between government and the unions had followed, and the latter had now expressed satisfaction to his department about the outcome.
The national rail network is to be trimmed to 15 800km with low density lines being farmed out to private operators, he said, while the general freight business and Coal Link will remain part of an integrated Spoornet rail freight operation.
At the same time turnabout strategies are to be implemented to increase the switch from road to rail for freight and increase operational efficiencies. If this project succeeds, said Radebe, employment might increase after the initial contraction.
At first the new-look Spoornet will have to invest heavily in rolling stock and equipment, which is likely to cut heavily into profitability margins, but once it returned to profitability, this would be sustainable.
The future position of iron ore line Orex is still under discussion, he said.
