Strike ends; Ekurhuleni mail delivery problems resume
The strike involving casual and part-time employees at the SA Post Office has come to an end and the company has begun resuming operations in the affected areas in Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, according to the Post Office.
“We are seeing major improvements, operationally, following the dismissal of the 403 illegally striking casual postal workers on September 2,” says Mlu Mathonsi, COO at the Post Office.
“This resulted from concerted back-to-back multi-stakeholder engagements, which included the shareholder representative, the minister of Postal and Telecommunications, who played a significant role, as well as their labour union leaders.
“A noticeable steady return of non-striking employees, who stayed at home due to violence and intimidation, is being observed in many of our business operations.
“In addition, mail sorting by volunteer employees commenced over the past weekend.
“We will also introduce other measures to expedite the resumption of full business operations in all the business areas that have been affected by the strike,” adds Mathonsi.
He says that the strike has resulted in a backlog of mail and the Post Office expects to work off the bulk within the next few weeks.
“Customers in the East Rand area should, however, still expect further delays in the delivery of mail, due to repairs to mail-sorting equipment in this area, which were vandalised during the strike.
“We regret the inconvenience that the strike has caused our customers, and assure them that the Post Office management, with the support of all our stakeholders, including the minister and our labour partners, is working tirelessly to restore operations back to full capacity,” Mathonsi says. – @CarmenBoksburg
