Employment and Labour Minister Nomakhosazana Meth has expressed concern about the ongoing retrenchment processes being initiated in various industries in South Africa.

In the first quarter of the year alone, South Africa lost 291 000 jobs, according to Statistics South Africa’s Quarterly Labour Force Survey.

Primary steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) is set to shut down its longs business by the end of September, resulting in an estimated 3 500 direct job losses and a further 100 000 jobs downstream.

Ford South Africa has also announced plans to cut 474 jobs at its two plants in the country – 391 operator positions at the Silverton assembly plant, in Pretoria, and 73 at the Struandale engine plant, in Gqeberha, as well as 10 administrative roles at both facilities.

This comes shortly after the closure of tyre manufacturer Goodyear South Africa, also in Gqeberha, owing to a global restructuring, which resulted in the loss of 900 jobs.

Unfortunately, Meth says, the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) did not receive an application from Goodyear, and, as a result, was unable to intervene.

In turn, diversified miner Glencore plans to cut jobs at its South Africa ferrochrome and vanadium operations, with the company having initiated a retrenchment process at its Boshoek and Wonderkop smelters, in Rustenburg.

According to trade union Solidarity, Glencore has already had 10 of its 22 furnaces either permanently or temporarily closed and that further closures could impact 2 425 direct jobs and 17 000 indirect jobs.

With respect to AMSA, the DEL has been part of ongoing efforts by key stakeholders including the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition and the Industrial Development Corporation to intervene and mitigate job losses at the steel giant.

A significant funding allocation of R416-million from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) under the Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme to support 2 982 employees was secured in May for AMSA; however, the company is adamant on proceeding with the wind-down of the longs business.

AMSA had hoped to secure further funding, which they were unable to secure. In the absence of securing the funding, the UIF funding was rendered unavailable as such an agreement is conditional upon a company providing a guarantee that they would not retrench employees.

“The primary purpose of our mandate is to preserve jobs; therefore, part of the condition is that companies cannot enter a retrenchment process while undertaking a turnaround strategy. It is unfortunate that we have reached this point with AMSA, but we remain committed to the intervention strategy,” Meth says.

On the matter of the South African Post Office (SAPO), which had already received more than R10-billion from the fiscus since 2014 and still reportedly retrenched thousands of people up to now, the DEL allocated R381-million through the same UIF programme to provide immediate financial relief to 5 956 employees, while enabling SAPO to implement a sustainable turnaround strategy over a six-month period.

“We are pleased to announce that we were able to intervene decisively with the SAPO turnaround strategy, which is proceeding smoothly,” Meth states.

The DEL provides intervention strategies for struggling companies through its Business Turnaround Strategy programme; however, the slugging economy presents huge challenges for job creation and retention.

The DEL has also contributed more than R4-billion to the Youth Employment Initiative, which provides young people with positions at various companies to secure one year of experience to become more employable and expose them to more opportunities.

“While there are some successful programmes implemented currently, we are gravely concerned about the reported job losses in some sectors. These are not just numbers, but people with families and children to support and put through school.

“We will continue to do everything possible within our mandate, to provide the requisite support to struggling companies and contribute to unemployment reduction,” Meth concludes.