Popcru threatens mass action against planned job cuts

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) says it will join the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) on rolling mass action against planned job cuts of public servants and a three year wage freeze.

Popcru says it is concerned about government’s failure to pay public servants wage increases that were due from April last year.

The union’s members comprise police, traffic and correctional services workers.

Popcru’s Rankele Msinto says the public service is understaffed and the planned job cuts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic are a serious concern.

“The public sector as we know it is understaffed when you compare it with the population of the country. If you cut [jobs] you are saying indirectly you retrench, you dismiss and which is something we can not accept as Popcru. We have seen that the Minister of Finance [Tito Mboweni] has already started this year to cut R37 billion from the last leg of 2018 wage agreement,” explains Msinto.

Putco announces retrenchment plans

On Thursday, bus company, Putco announced that it plans to retrench 214 employees.

In a statement, the company says like most businesses, it has been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown regulations.

The announcement by Putco comes on the back Greyhound’s announcement that they too have reached the end of the road.

Meanwhile, a strike is looming at the public broadcaster as the SABC Board again rejected the Communication Minister’s suggestion of more engagement with organised labour over Section 189 retrenchments.

Unions representing staff have again threatened court action and industrial action.

In the video below, Bemawu says it is still willing to engage with the SABC: