Eskom battling with staff costs after ditching job-cuts plan

Johannesburg - Eskom said it will look for ways to reduce staff costs other than cutting jobs after it halted a plan to offer workers voluntary retrenchment deals.

Eskom rejected applications by 2 493 employees for redundancy deals in February as the power utility decided against losing the workers’ skills, Khulu Phasiwe, a spokesperson for Eskom, said by phone on Friday.

The company approved packages for 443 staff, most of whom were over the age of 60, after inviting applications for retrenchments in 2014, Eskom said in an emailed statement.

The company employs 41 993 people.

“Eskom still requires the savings that those voluntary separation packages were modeled to generate,” it said.

The company will seek further “opportunities for saving in the manpower operating-cost space”.

Eskom needs to reduce cost as it faces a R225bn shortfall for the five years through 2018 and battles to supply adequate power.