A FACE off is brewing between logistics state-owned-enterprise Transnet and its organised labour nemesis the United National Transport Union (Untu) this week, which has accused the entity of unilaterally letting go of critical skills and experience through the voluntary severance packages (VSP) that will see close to 3000 employees exit at the cost of about R2.3 billion.
Transnet on the other hand said yesterday that its wage bill, at more than 67 percent of its fixed costs, was unsustainable though it was trying to retain critical skills.
Untu’s general secretary Steve Harris this week accused Transnet chief executive Portia Derby of underhandedly approving all applications of the VSP workers, including 794 senior managers, which he said would leave the entity without critical skills and experience.
According to Harris, Derby would counteract the purpose of the VSP if she appoints employees from outside Transnet to fill the critical vacancies including those of 200 train drivers, crane and lifting operators and artisans who are considered scarce skills in Transnet.
“Nearly 42 percent of the employees leaving Transnet have more than 26 years of service and 41 percent of them have between 10 and 26 years of service," Harris said.
Harris was adamant that senior executives, including four chief financial officers, were part of the exodus and that appointment of fresh outside blood to replace them would cripple Transnet's historical skills base.
He said the exercise to chop 2 919 jobs would only save about 7 percent of Transnet's wage bill, which was little compared to what was being lost.
However, Transnet spokesperson Ayanda Shezi said it had begun an analysis of the VSP uptake and would hereafter be able to tell where the company should focus in re-allocating, re-deploying and enhancing current skills and roles to ensure continued operations.
Shezi said Transnet had put adequate processes in place to ensure that its highly-skilled work force was preserved, particularly in areas where those skills were scarce and critical to the operations of the business.
"This has been done through a number of programmes focused on mentoring and transferring of critical skills. These include the Transnet leadership development programme, which seeks to build leadership capabilities and skills at managerial levels. Transnet has also recently introduced the ’silver fox’ programme, which encourages employees who have been with the company for many years to transfer skills and knowledge to younger employees," Shezi said.
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