The South African Post Office’s business rescue practitioners (BRPs) have announced that they plan to make early payment on the first set of severance packages to retrenched staff.
In a statement from Friday, 7 June 2024, the BRPs added the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) is fully paid up and that former employees can apply for employee insurance benefits from UIF.
The BRPs — Anoosh Rooplal and Juanito Damons — have completed all the necessary administration requirements for paying the first tranche of severance packages to affected employees, including receiving all tax directives from the South African Revenue Service.
To this end, the BRPs are set to make early payments to the first set of retrenched staff on Friday. It had previously planned to distribute the packages toward the end of June.
“All retrenched staff will, therefore, see the first tranche of their severance packages reflected in their bank accounts from next week,” said Rooplal.
“SARS has also been paid their first dividend of 12c in the rand, amounting to some R70 million.”
The South African Post Office (Sapo) said retrenched employees must continue to liaise with the Post Office Retirement Fund regarding queries and mention payments.
As the Post Office Retirement Fund is a separate legal entity, it is not under the BRPs’ control.
The second and third tranches of severance packages will be paid in September 2024 and November 2024, respectively.
“The BRPs continue to monitor the cash flow position and protect current revenue streams in terms of the Business Rescue Plan,” said Rooplal.
The BRPs were forced to proceed with the job cuts proposed in their business rescue plan for Sapo after attempts to delay the lay-offs failed.
Sapo’s BRPs, various labour unions, the South African ministers of labour and communications, and the UIF had engaged in discussions to secure Temporary Employment Relief Scheme (TERS) funding to protect jobs at the Post Office.
They signed an agreement to withdraw the Section 189 notice for some impacted workers.
The agreement involved the UIF’s TERS helping to pay employees for the next year, while Sapo’s BRPs and other stakeholders developed a “progressive turnaround plan” that didn’t involve cutting jobs.
They applied to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA) to delay the staff cuts. However, the CCMA wasn’t convinced.
It said TERS was launched to provide temporary relief during the Covid-19 pandemic as an alternative to job cuts for embattled employers.
In Sapo’s case, it saw securing the funding as just delaying the inevitable.