EFF claims of planned staff retrenchments at Parliament false

6 March 2021

Parliament wishes to correct the patently erroneous and misleading claims made in the statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) regarding the process of affording employees who are on the verge of retirement age an opportunity to opt for voluntary early retirement. 

Parliament is currently engaging with National Treasury with a view to introducing a similar process to the one that was implemented in the Public Service of Voluntary early retirement. The EFF has falsely claimed, without any shred of evidence, that Parliament plans to retrench thousands of workers. Voluntary early retirement is not the same as mass retrenchment. A voluntary early retirement incentive is offered to employees who wish to retire early; and in this regard, an employee has an option to initiate the application to be considered for early retirement or to continue to work until their retirement age. 

The agreement regarding this process was entered into with workers' representatives, Nehawu, and seeks to also make it easier for employees who are struggling with chronic illness but do not qualify for medical boarding, or staff who are almost at retirement age and wish to leave earlier but are discouraged by retirement policies' penalties. 

Several employees who are close to retirement age have already indicated their willingness to take up this opportunity to retire early if it is offered. 

It is "voluntary" early retirement, and therefore it cannot be used "to force staff members out," as EFF claims. It is up to those employees to determine if they wish to take such an opportunity or not. 

Retrenchment, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of voluntary early retirement. Nowhere has Parliament ever announced or considered retrenchments as an option. 

Despite the cut in the Treasury allocation to Parliament, we are not in a crisis to warrant such drastic intervention as claimed by the EFF. As the Acting Secretary to Parliament stressed during her appearance to the Standing Committee on the Financial Management of Parliament meeting yesterday, appropriate measures will be put in place to ensure retrenchments are avoided. 

While significant savings have been made due to most of the business of Parliament being conducted through virtual platforms as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, such funds may not be a permanent solution to the effects of budget cuts, as EFF suggests. 

A false impression has also been created in the EFF statement, in order to exaggerate the impact of the fabricated 'retrenchments' narrative, that Parliament has "thousands of staff members". Parliament has a total of 1309 staff members. 

Issued by Moloto Mothapo, 6 March 2021