The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) is gearing up for a fight with the KZN Department of Education over its refusal to approve early retirement applications due to a lack of funds.
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The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) in KwaZulu-Natal is gearing up for a fight with the provincial department of education over the pronouncement by the department that it "cannot comply" with the policy to allow government employees to retire early.
The government has allowed certain groups of government employees to retire early without facing penalties, a move which is aimed at reducing the government's wage bill.
While the national policy aims to allow staff to retire early without pension penalties, the KZN department said its "existing baseline budget" cannot absorb the associated expenses. The department employs approximately 110,000 people across the province.
The Provincial Treasury stated on Tuesday that it expects to save close to R200 million in the next three years under this programme. Already, 614 government workers have taken up the early retirement opportunity in the province.
In a statement, SADTU KZN said it has secured a meeting with the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education (DOE) Head of Department, Nkosinathi Ngcobo.
“This meeting is important for SADTU to raise its concerns on behalf of members who applied for early retirement. The current stance of the KZN DOE undermines collective bargaining and threatens the trust that employees and SADTU have in the department,” said the union.
Finance MEC Francois Rodgers, while tabling his budget on Tuesday, stated that the process was initiated by the National Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) to save costs on employee compensation, or staffing costs.
“With respect to the incentivised Early Retirement Programme (ERP) without pension penalties and a Voluntary Exit Programme (VEP) for public service employees, a total of R99.8 million is allocated to the province in this regard.”
He explained that there are two aspects to this: exits by employees aged 55 to 59 years, employed under the Public Service Act on permanent employment, who were eligible to apply for the ERP. However, employees aged 60 to 63 do not qualify for the ERP but are invited to apply for a ‘voluntary earlier exit’, known as VEP.
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