'Unfair Retrenchment Process' Haunts BPC
Lebogang Mosikare | Monday November 12, 2018 13:46
On Friday, former workers led by Molefe Modise and 36 others hauled the state-owned power utility to court praying for BPC to be forced to give them their funds from the unpaid performance increment, unprocedural and unfair retrenchment process and unpaid pensions amongst others.
The retrenched employees also wanted the court to direct their former employer to pay them the remaining amount of performance pay, which Modise stated in his evidence in chief that the matter has since been resolved after BPC corrected the anomaly by paying all the retrenchees the balance that was outstanding.
Giving his evidence in chief before Justice Galesite Baruti, Modise, a former BPC maintenance technician, told the court that he and other retrenched employees received letters terminating their employment on May 31, 2017.
He said after he voluntarily retired from BPC, he discovered that there were irregularities with respect to his terminal benefits and the way the retrenchment process was carried out.
Modise said after he noticed the irregularities he went to BPC in order to highlight the irregularities that he discovered in his termination letter.
“One of the irregularities was the incorrect way in which my terminal benefits were calculated. One Tsholofelo Sebele told me to come to the office but after I arrived at the office, she told me that as far as BPC was concerned, the calculations were proper. Most of us did not agree with the way our terminal benefits were calculated and we ended up filing a notice of dispute at the department of labour.
“We then submitted a list of all the employees querying how their terminal benefits were calculated. I also told one BPC employee that the list we submitted at the department of labour was not exhaustive. He did not object to that assertion hence the mediation process proceeded but we did not agree hence we ended up registering the matter with the Industrial Court here,” Modise said when being led by attorney for the retrenches, Gosego Lekgowe.
When being cross-examined by BPC attorney Mboki Chilisa, Modise said he represented around 300 workers BPC retrenched.
He said he got the mandate to represent the employees from their representatives at various BPC stations in the country, as the retrenchment exercise was a countrywide process.
He said other retrenched workers were against the idea of taking the court route to recover their claims hence they are not party to the suit.
The case, however, took another twist as it became clear that some retrenched employees in the list became party to the suit after 30 days had expired following their retrenchment, which is contrary to labour laws.
Lekgowe asked the court to briefly adjourn the matter in order to discuss how he and Chilisa may proceed with the application.
When the matter resumed later, Lekgowe told the court that other people who were not listed on form R4 were withdrawing their application leaving only three applicants on the list from the R3 form, which had 36 applicants.
He begged the court to postpone the matter to next year in order for the applicants not listed in form R4 to properly follow all procedures for becoming party to the case.
At the end of the hearing, Baruti granted an order stating that all applicants who are not listed on form R4 are withdrawing as parties to the matter.
“The three applicants listed on form R4 are the only applicants to this application. The matter shall continue on February 26 and 27 next year,” Baruti said.
The BPC retrenchment exercise is part of the restructuring under the Masa2020 Strategy within which the BPC expects to return to profitability in three years’ time. The new CEO, Stefan Schwarzfischer and an overhauled team of executives are leading the strategy, which is supported by the board and the parent ministry. The workers allege the exercise has turned into a witch-hunt after about 900 workers dumped their internal union and approached the National Amalgamated Local and Central Government and Parastatal Workers Union (NALCGPWU) for membership.
In January 2017, Schwarzfischer told journalists that 200 workers would be targeted in the first part of a two-phased retrenchment exercise aimed at cutting up to 30% of the corporation’s costs.
The BPC has been running operational losses for years, which amounted to P2bn in 2015-2016, P1.3bn in 2014-2015 and P1.6bn in 2013-2014.