Government to trim thousands of jobs in public service to cut salary bill

Thousands of public sector workers over the age of 60 will be offered voluntary retrenchment as part of an effort by the government to cut its salary bill‚ Business Day reported on Thursday.

The decision to offer voluntary severance packages - the first such offer in 20 years - follows the conclusion of a new three-year wage agreement last week that bust the budget by about R30-billion.

The consequence of this‚ said the Department of Public Service and Administration in a statement‚ was that measures to contain costs had to be taken. These would include: encouraging early retirement by topping up pension funds for those who take the package; reviewing the government’s performance management and incentive systems; and more effective management of allowances.

The department said on Wednesday that it was too early to say how many jobs would be affected. Business Day reported it can be assumed though‚ that if the savings target is R30bn over the next three years‚ the government would need to cut salaries by R10bn a year. This would imply scaling down thousands of jobs.

- BusinessLIVE