Wednesday, 05 August 2009

Leave

The document currently being circulated which purports to come from the company secretary (extract hereunder) refers. This documents contains a part in respect of employee’s leave credit.

“Leave Encashment

• All Leave encashment to be stopped immediately

• Leave accumulation to be capped to 10 days per annum. All employees with excess leave need to take all excess leave in the next six months or else it will be forfeited.”

It is a term and condition of employment to encash leave an also to accumulate leave, in particular before going on pension. The SABC has an (unlawful) practice to not pay out overtime, but to give time off. This has resulted in many instances to the leave accumulation of employees.

To change a term and condition of employment, the SABC needs to negotiate with us. We do not accept the unilateral change to terms and conditions of employment and will engage the SABC in this respect.

Hannes

Some of the content of the letter:

“At a Board meeting held on Thursday 30 July 2009 the Board resolved that the Company needed to effect urgent further cost cutting initiatives and these are to be implemented with effect from 3 August 2009. The initiatives will not affect the contractual benefits as are covered in individual employment contracts. The Board is deeply concerned that the initiatives as detailed in the Austerity Plan have not yielded significant benefits and the culture in the Company towards cost reduction implementation has not changed.

The Board will also be subjected to the same initiatives as are applicable to Management and have taken further action by not taking the home equipment they are entitled to in terms of Policy, nor have the Board taken the DSTV subscription or the Television License subsidy they are entitled to.

These measures will remain in force until otherwise advised and until the revenue and cost situation in the Company shows significant improvement.

The Board of Directors RESOLVED that the following additional cost reduction initiatives be implemented with immediate effect:

Travel & Accommodation

• All Domestic Travel & Air Travel up to six hours duration restricted to Economy Class

· Domestic accommodation to rationalized to ensure maximum value at cheapest rate including use of Bed and breakfast where the rate is to the benefit of SABC

• International Accommodation - $450 maximum daily room rack rate limit on all accommodation

• No more than two people per Division, per event unless motivated and

approved by GCEO

• No conferences or seminars

• Video Conferencing to be encouraged to help reduce costs of travel

• No aircraft or helicopter charters without prior approval of the Chairperson

• No security detail or chauffeur service other than what is required

to perform duty

· All entertainment and marketing unless strictly and demonstrably revenue generating stopped

Car Hire

• All car hire to be restricted to Class B except where MPV hired for

a group traveling together

• People traveling to same destination to share vehicles

Newspapers

• Newspaper subscriptions to be rationalized and limited to the floor as opposed to individuals

Television Sets in Offices

• Television Sets in Offices to be discontinued except where required for Operational reasons, i.e. Channels Heads, programmers, News

Home Equipment & DSTV Subscription

• DSTV subscription for Managers to be discontinued

• No Home equipment for Directors, only laptop, data card & Cell Phone

• No TV License subsidy or DSTV subscription for Directors

Cell Phone & Data Card Subscription

• Cell Phones to be rationalized and cell phone limits are to be

strictly enforced

• Data Cards to be rationalized and Data Card limits are to be strictly enforced

Petrol Cards

• All Petrol Cards for Managers to be withdrawn & to be replaced with

fuel allowance except where there is a contractual obligation/ condition of service

Leave Encashment

• All Leave encashment to be stopped immediately

• Leave accumulation to be capped to 10 days per annum. All employees with excess leave need to take all excess leave in the next six months or else it will be forfeited.

Please ensure that the initiatives as detailed are clearly communicated and that all affected Managers are fully apprised of the initiatives. Implementation is immediate. “

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

We cannot cash leave. We cannot accumulate leave. So why don't we take a co-ordinated 1 or 2 days annual leave as a form of protest against this breach of our terms and conditions of employment. Will this classed as "industrial action" or as a meaningful contribution by BEMAWU to assist the SABC to achieve their austerity goals??

Anonymous said...

I'm a junior Manaqer and if this new rule was enforced - I would only have 2 people out of a 7 member team for the next 6 months...
I think that type of loss in productivity will cost the SABC a lot more than this very ill-advised declaration handed down by the Board.
BUT I LOVE THE REST!

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