BPC Denies Trio Voluntary Separation, Fires Them
Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday February 3, 2020 16:45
The trio who had applied for voluntary separation find themselves on the streets after the Corporation expelled them for allegedly not taking up their new duties.
On November 1, 2019, the employees received letters from then chief executive officer, Cross Kgosidiile referenced as ‘Appeal against voluntary separation- Yourself’. Kgosidiile stated that the employees were given a month to have relocated to new duty stations, but failed to comply.
“Therefore, since you did not accept the position of Electrician and relocation, you are advised that the Corporation has no further option but to terminate your employment by giving you one month notice, effective 1st November 2019. Your last day of employment will be 30th November 2019,” reads the letter.
One of the disgruntled former employees who spoke to The Monitor anonymously fearing victimisation said they were shocked about the turn of events.
“We were shocked when we got the dismissal letters because we were still awaiting response to our appeals. It is very painful that we had applied to be let go voluntarily; the Corporation would not let us go stating that they needed us. And now we had to go away empty handed,” he said.
The employee said even though they had not accepted the new offers which saw them being demoted from being Estimators to Electricians (with no change in salaries), they continued to do work at the Corporation. He said they now suspected a witch-hunt, as they would never expected that the Corporation that denied them voluntary retrenchment would later fire them at the first opportunity.
BPC Workers Union (BPCWU) has in the past tried to intervene on behalf of the employees to be let go, but efforts bore no fruit. “I was surprised to learn that they were expelled after we had been engaging management on their appeals to be let go,” BPCWU chairperson, Patrick Siamang said.
“We are also shocked that they were demoted when the HR Manual states that one can only be transferred on promotion or same band, but they were demoted in their case.” BPC spokesperson, Dineo Seleke would not say much on the matter stating that it was before court. “Their skills were needed by the Corporation; hence their applications were rejected along with others who were in a similar state. This decision was reached as per the guidelines,” Seleke said when asked why the employees were denied voluntary separation.
She added that the correspondences from the employees were responded to in line with the Corporation’s Policy.