S.Africa: Arrogant Black Management: Post Office pay cuts while CEO earns R4 million
[The CEO is a Black woman. Blacks have learned how to vote for big pay increases for themselves!!! Jan]
The South African Post Office has said it is overstaffed and needs to cut employee expenses to delay forced retrenchments.
It hit back in a statement following allegations on Wednesday from the DA’s Dianne Kohler Barnard that the Post Office aims to effectively cut staff pay by 40% while CEO Nomkhita Mona earns R4 million a year.
According to Kohler Barnard, a reliable source informed them that Post Office management proposed cutting employee hours by two days per week — an effective 40% pay cut.
The South African Post Office (SAPO) has responded to her claims, explaining that its back is against the wall.
“It is unsustainable for SAPO to carry staff expenses accounting for 68% of its expenditure,” it said.
“In fact, these decisions should have been taken a number of years ago, as the writing has always been on the wall. Staff cost reduction is unavoidable.”
Mona took over as Group CEO of the Post Office on 1 April 2021.
The Post Office said it is considering several strategies to reduce staff costs, including:
A reduced work week — employees would be free to supplement their incomes in other ways, including within SAPO; and
Voluntary severance packages, which is already underway.
“These measures are aimed at cutting employment costs, while saving some jobs — effectively a job-sharing model; while at the same time delaying a process of forced retrenchments,” said SAPO.
“SAPO has over the past number of years seen a substantial decline in letter volumes — which is in line with international trends — and a decline in revenue.”
It said that while new products like vehicle licence renewals partly compensate for this decline, the Post Office has always been overstaffed.
“[This is] owing to a number of reasons, including the absorption of 8,250 temporary employees when labour brokers became undesirable; another 708 employees were absorbed from its courier division, Courier Freight Group (CFG), when it was dismantled.”
According to the Post Office’s latest annual report, it employs 14,460 staff.
If Mona’s salary were reduced to zero and given to the rest of the staff, they would each get R276 per year, or R23 per month.
If the salaries of all the executives, non-executive directors, and prescribed officers were reduced to zero from R23.9 million, the remaining 14,438 staff could all get an extra R138 per month.
SAPO also took issue with Kohler Barnard’s claim that Mona earns almost double what her predecessor, Mark Barnes, did in 2020.
“The statement regarding the CEO’s remuneration is misleading,” it said.
“The 2020 annual report reflects the salary that the previous CEO received for the five months that he served during the relevant financial year,” said SAPO.
“The reality is that the current Group CEO earns less than her predecessor, even though she joined the organisation two years later.”
Analysing the Post Office’s annual reports corroborates its rebuttal.
Extracts from the SA Post Office’s 2019 and 2022 annual reports showing executive pay
Mona was paid R3,992,000 in the 2021/22 financial year, whereas Mark Barnes received R4,516,000 in the 2018/19 financial year.
According to SAPO’s 2020 annual report, Barnes left on 31 July 2019 and was paid R2,882,000.
Since SAPO’s financial year starts in April, that suggests he received four months’ pay, not five.
However, even using the Post Office’s stated timeframe of five months, Barnes’ annualised salary for the 2019/20 financial year becomes R6.9 million.
The Post Office also responded to the DA’s claims about its outstanding debt and non-payment of staff’s medical aid and pension fund contributions.
“All current medical aid contributions are up to date, as at today,” SAPO argued.
“The only outstanding amount is what is historically owed to Medipos, over the years when no contributions were paid. SAPO is actively engaged in processes to deal with this historical aspect of Medipos debt.”
It also said the amount owed to Postbank is historic debt dating back to the time when the Postbank was a division of the SA Post Office.
“Notably, the separation of Postbank left the Post Office with an enormous loss of assets for which the Post Office was never compensated. We are engaging government in this regard.”