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Parliament has dismissed claims of the EFF’s plans to cut “thousands of workers” in the legislative arm of the government.
PHOTO: Jeffrey Abrahams, Gallo Images
- Parliament has rejected the EFF’s claims that there are plans to reduce “thousands of workers” in the legislative arm of the government.
- The EFF claimed that Parliament employees would be fired and expelled through voluntary severance packages.
- Parliament said it was offering voluntary early retirement packages and that there were no plans to fire anyone.
Parliament has dismissed claims of the EFF’s plans to cut “thousands of workers” in the legislative arm of the government.
In a statement on Friday, the party alleged that Acting Secretary of Parliament Baby Tyawa had revealed that the workers would be laid off.
This was said to have been revealed at a meeting of Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Financial Management, where Tyawa said that Parliament was more than 500 million rand short just to maintain staff compliment and therefore “would make packages of voluntary compensation to force staff members out “.
“Parliament argues that this is due to severe cuts to its budget, imposed by the National Treasury,” the EFF said.
“This means that parliamentary services will be severely restricted, limiting the ability of members to perform their executive oversight functions significantly.
“The compliment of Parliament staff consists of very crucial positions, such as investigators and content advisers to parliamentary committees, committee secretaries and others involved in member support services,” he added.
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Parliament spokesman Moloto Mothapo said the EFF’s claims were blatantly wrong and misleading.
“Parliament is currently collaborating with the National Treasury with a view to introducing a process similar to that implemented in the voluntary early retirement public service.”
“The EFF has falsely claimed, without the slightest evidence, that Parliament plans to lay off thousands of workers. Voluntary early retirement is not the same as massive downsizing. A voluntary early retirement incentive is offered to employees who wish to retire early, and in this sense, an employee has the option of initiating the application to be considered for early retirement or continuing to work until retirement age. “
Mothapo added that several employees, who were nearing retirement age, have already expressed their willingness to take advantage of this opportunity to retire early if it is offered to them.
“It is a voluntary early retirement and therefore cannot be used to kick out staff members as EFF claims. It is up to those employees to determine whether they want to take advantage of that opportunity or not.
“Reduction, on the other hand, is the complete opposite of voluntary early retirement. Nowhere has Parliament announced or considered an option.”
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Mothapo said that despite the budget cut, Parliament was not in a crisis that would justify such drastic intervention as the EFF claims.
As Parliament’s Acting Secretary underlined during her appearance before Parliament’s Financial Management Standing Committee meeting yesterday, appropriate measures will be put in place to ensure that staff reductions are avoided.
“While significant savings have been achieved due to the majority of Parliament’s business being conducted via virtual platforms as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, such funds may not be a permanent solution for the purposes of budget cuts, as suggested by the EFF. “
He said a false impression had been created in the EFF statement in order to exaggerate the impact of the fabricated layoff narrative that Parliament had thousands of staff members.
Parliament has 1,309 officials.
