Trade union Solidarity is launching a large-scale campaign to put a stop to the retrenchments at Absa.
The campaign's slogan will be “Today, tomorrow, goodbye”. This comes after big four bank Absa sent out letters of retrenchment to staff in its consultants and actuaries unit, despite continually denying it was embarking on a widespread retrenchment process.
Several employees' services will be terminated on 31 March 2012, and several others' services will be terminated on 13 May 2012. The total number of employees and posts that will be affected is not known, however.
Solidarity says the campaign will include, among other things, thousands of protest messages to Marcus Agius, the chairman of Barclays in England. It will use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube videos to garner public support for the campaign.
“According to our information, Absa was instructed by Barclays to cut personnel costs by 10%. It is clear to us that Barclays' grip on Absa is getting tighter. Our focus will, therefore, shift to Barclays. We don't approve of a situation where the employees of a profitable South African bank subsidise a bank in England,” says Dirk Hermann, deputy general secretary of Solidarity.
“Absa will be losing highly-skilled personnel as a result of the latest restructuring. We are concerned that this pursuit of short-term gains will jeopardise the bank's sustainability in the long-term.”
He adds that in the campaign, the trade union will specifically protest against the manner in which the retrenchments were dealt with.
“In a YouTube video that will be released later in the week, employees relate how they were forced to pack up their personal belongings and were escorted out of the building like criminals in front of their colleagues. A number of their co-workers started crying when they saw them being escorted out. This style of laying people off is unfamiliar in SA, and we cannot allow a foreign company to establish a strange and unacceptable culture in SA,” says Hermann.
The public can send letters of protest regarding the Absa retrenchments to Agius via the Web page. Alternatively, they can SMS the word “Absa” to 34388 (R2 per SMS) to support the campaign. The campaign can also be followed on Twitter at #stopabsa.
IT cuts
This recent round of retrenchments has sparked fears that IT staff, who were sent on a three-month reassignment period last month, could end up unemployed as soon as the middle of May.
The retrenchment letter, a copy of which is in ITWeb's possession, indicates that some consultants and actuaries unit employees' reassignment period had come to an end, and that they would be without a job from the end of the month.
In addition, a further round of job cuts could be looming, as Absa has sent more IT staff a letter notifying them that it is realigning positions within the group with available skills, as it seeks to trim IT staff from 1 200 to 700, alleges a union.
Hermann says about 500 IT staff are expected to be trimmed from the bank's contractor and employee base when it has finished the realignment process.
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