The South African Post Office (SAPO) has reached an agreement with Communication Workers Union, the South African Postal Workers Union & Democratic Postal and Communications Union to withdraw retrenchment notices.
The parties have agreed to apply for the Unemployment Insurance Fund’s Temporary Employment Relief Scheme (TERS) for at least 12 months saving roughly 4,700 jobs at the struggling state entity.
The Post Office was placed under business rescue last year which has since made provision for the retrenchment of 6 000 employees.
Cosatu says that should TERS relief be provided for a specified period; the parties will endeavour to try and place employees in positions that may become available as and when the business recovers.
However, if the TERS application is not successful, parties will revert to their current positions.
Among branches that were expected to be shut, 104 are in the Central region (Free State and North West), 41 in the Northern region (North Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West), 28 in the Western region (Western Cape and Northern Cape), 24 in the Eastern Cape, 21 in KwaZulu-Natal and 17 in Gauteng (most of Gauteng and the Vaal Triangle).