Return to sender as Post Office staff strike

AS ONE strike ended another started at the beleaguered Post Office this week, threatening to finally drown one of South Africa's oldest institutions in ever-growing piles of undelivered mail.

The South African Post Office has been plagued by five long strikes over the past three years, with the biggest strike costing the organisation more than R100-million.

The breakdown in employee relations is placing a heavy burden on a business that is rapidly losing customers and posted a loss of R359-million in its latest financial year.

"This organisation is dead in the water," a senior manager said on the basis of anonymity.

The complete breakdown in employee relations was again demonstrated on Friday when workers took to burning a Post Office depot in Soweto. This followed the burning of delivery vans and other violence the week before related to another strike. "There has been a strike at the Post Office almost every month since 2012," said Tutu Serame, union leader at the Democratic Postal and Communications Union.

At the heart of the unhappiness is the inability of management to honour agreements to convert part-time workers into permanent staff.

Business Times is in possession of three agreements that were signed off by high-level management this year but have still not been implemented.

The first was signed with the assistance of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration in February, and related to making 600 casual staff permanent.

The second was signed by employee relations manager Samuel Mathikhi in April when parties agreed that another 900 would be made permanent.

Converting casual staff to permanent could be a costly exercise for the cash-strapped Post Office because it includes benefits such as medical aid, pension funds, bonuses, housing allowances, funeral benefits and loan facilities for workers.

Serame said workers agreed to limited benefits that would provide an employee who was made permanent with a provident fund, bonus and cellphone. This was agreed in a third supplementary agreement signed at the end of April. Serame said this would push down the cost of converting an employee to about R9000 a year.

According to a strategy document, the aim would be to convert all casual workers (about 6428) to permanent employees by 2018.

"This will be impossible if they are going at their current rate, with agreements racking up, but nothing actually happening," said Serame.

The "turnaround strategy document" lists employee relations and cash management as the top two items that need to be addressed.

During its latest financial year the Post Office generated R6-billion in revenue, while its costs were R6.5-billion. It is forecast that it will run at an overdraft of R529-million in the coming year.

It is yet to employ a permanent human resources manager at a time when labour tension is at a high. President Jacob Zuma ordered the Special Investigating Unit in February to probe irregularities and alleged corruption at the Post Office, but investigators seem to be getting nowhere .

Public protector Thuli Mandonsela's office has also been conducting an inquiry that started in 2011, but it is still not ready to release a report.