HR 101 - WHAT TO DO WHEN . . . . You Want to Retrench Staff

ARTICLE 32

WHAT TO DO WHEN . . . . You Want To Retrench Your Staff

By Nikki Viljoen – N Viljoen Consulting CC – June 2009

Did you know that there are certain instances when you actually don’t have to pay severance pay?  How cool is that!

Here’s the deal – Mike is the owner of a retail store in a busy mall and George is one of his sales persons.

The sales in the store have been dropping steadily and Mike is forced to retrench some of his staff – George is one of these individuals.

Mike is very concerned about his staff and their responsibilities and goes out of his way to try and find them alternative employment and manages to secure a position of sales person with one of his colleagues, for George.  This position is a little different to straight retail though and it means that George will be on the road (although still locally) and he will have to work a little harder to ‘make’ the sale.  In a retail environment, a customer usually walks through the door with the intention to purchase something.  In this environment, George is given ‘leads’ and he will have to close the sale.

George is not impressed and refuses to take the position, saying that his job is in a store and it is not his intention to go running around after other people to look for sales.

George is retrenched without a package and goes off to the CCMA.  The CCMA find in favour of Mike due to the following.

Mike did get alternative employment for George and said employment was within George’s scope – it’s not like George was expected to go from being a sales person to being a labourer. 

The position that Mike secured for George was a positive one and one that George, if he put his mind to it, could do very well in.

George refused to take the offer and the reasons that he gave for turning down the job offer were totally unreasonable.

So there you have it, if you are ever in a position where you have to retrench and you don’t really have the money to pay out huge retrenchment packages, then ensure that you find your employees reasonable alternative employment.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za