Johannesburg - The Freedom Front Plus wants to ask the Minister of Labour to carry out an investigation into the dismissal of Post Office workers over the past month.
Willie Spies, the party's spokesperson on labour, says workers countrywide have been dismissed after the Post Office decided to terminate the contracts of so-called contract workers.
"At certain post offices as much as two-thirds of the staff has been fired as part of rationalisation processes at the parastatal."
According to Spies, the FF+ has received complaints from various parts of the country where branch offices are now being manned by only a single person after the rest of the staff has been dismissed.
Post Office communications manager Lungile Lose, however, paints a different picture.
According to him, in the past financial year the Post Office increased the number of staff from 15 781 to 17 388. He says the intention is to appoint permanent staff rather than to use contract workers.
"About 1 400 contract workers were offered permanent posts during this period. Since January 2008 the Post Office's permanent and contract work profile has changed from a ratio of 60/40 to one of 80/20."
Lose says contract workers are not being "summarily? dismissed. He says they are offered permanent posts wherever possible.
A spokesperson for an independent agency that wishes to remain anonymous says the Post office's chief executive, Motshoanetsi Lefoka, is spearheading the drive to appoint contract workers permanently. The spokesperson says the process is making some unhappy, but this is mainly because of the process.
"The changes are perhaps happening too quickly. People close to the Post Office, for example, are not being continuously updated, which leads to dissatisfaction in certain circles."
Lefoka was appointed chief executive in December 2007.
- Sake24