The Post Office’s business rescue practitioners have reached an agreement with labour unions to halt some retrenchments at the embattled state-owned company for 12 months.

In a statement on Wednesday, business rescue practitioners Anoosh Rooplal and Juanito Damons said the curtailment of retrenchments applies only to unionised Post Office employees and is subject to funding approval by the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters).

The unions that reached the agreement with Rooplal and Damons are the South African Postal Workers Union, the Democratic Postal and Communications Union and the Communications Workers Union.

“Should the application for the Ters relief be successful, the bargaining unit employees will have 75% of their salaries paid by the Ters relief money (through the Post Office) and 25% paid by the Post Office for the amount of time that Ters agrees, but no longer than 12 months,” said the statement.

Should the application for Ters funding be successful, only employees who are currently employed and categorised as “level C” or below will qualify. As such, retrenchment notices that have already been served to employees meeting the qualifying criteria have been withdrawn. If the money isn’t forthcoming, then the retrenchments will once again take effect.

As a condition of the agreement, the business rescue practitioners said that employees whose retrenchment letters have been withdrawn are not allowed to engage in any “unprotected, unprocedural or illegal industrial action”, adding that those found guilty of contravening this clause may be dismissed for misconduct.

Business rescue

Following litigation by creditors, which included landlords to whom the Post Office owed rent, the troubled state-owned entity was placed into business rescue on 10 July 2023. According to the business rescue plan, the Post Office’s debt amounts to R4.5-billion, with R3.9-billion owed to Postbank and about R400-million owed in rental arrears. Some 4 870 retrenchment letters have already been sent out as part of the business rescue proceedings, and a majority of these letters have been rescinded, according to a spokeswoman for the business rescue practitioners.

Read: Union vows to fight jobs ‘slaughter’ at the Post Office

“Should the Ters relief not be forthcoming by the end of May, all retrenchment letters that have been withdrawn will be reinstated and any amounts payable by the Post Office will be paid subject to the availability of cash flows,” said Rooplal.