SA’s major banks have poured cold water on a claim by finance union Sasbo that more than 10,000 people will soon be joining the ranks of the unemployed when the banking sector scraps thousands of posts.
On Friday, Sasbo general secretary Joe Kokela claimed Standard Bank was planning to retrench up to 6,000 people and competitors Nedbank and Absa 3,000 and 878 jobs respectively, due to the effect of the fourth industrial revolution.
The Cosatu-affiliated union is threatening to shut down Africa’s most advanced and complicated financial sector in protest.
The country’s traditional banks are facing an unprecedented challenge from tech-savvy newcomers such as Discovery, TymeBank and Bank Zero, forcing them to restructure as they scramble to digitise their operations.
However, while confirming that Standard Bank is closing 91 branches, affecting 1,200 employees, as it realigns its retail and business banking delivery model to the “changing needs of customers amid rapid adoption of digital banking products and services”, spokesperson Ross Linstrom denied the bank is planning to retrench 6,000 people.
Nedbank spokesperson Sharda Naidoo said: “Nedbank does not have plans to cut 3,000 jobs. Nedbank has just concluded a reorganisation process where we consulted with 1,500 employees who were affected by their roles or reporting lines changing. Following completion of those consultations, fewer than 100 employees remain unplaced.”
Absa said it announced a new group operating model in April that “began to align the organisation with its new corporate strategy ... we also stated that each business and enabling function would undergo individual structural reviews in order to enable delivery against the strategy”.
The bank said this process is under way and involves new opportunities and redundancies across the business. “It is only once the realignment is complete that the total number of people who have either been appointed to new roles or have left the organisation will be known with certainty.”
However, Kokela insisted a “jobs bloodbath” looms in the banking sector, saying the institutions have held formal engagements with the union on the matter.
“The fact that they are consulting us is just a formality ... these guys have already taken a decision that they are going ahead with the retrenchments come what may.”
Kokela said the 73,000-strong union is preparing to call a two-day nationwide strike in September to force the employers to reconsider their position.
The dispute follows shocking unemployment figures released by statistician-general Risenga Maluleke last week. Statistics SA data showed that unemployment jumped to an 11-year high of 29% during the second quarter of 2019, from 27.6% in the first quarter.
The number of unemployed people increased by 455,000 to 6.7-million, and more than 10-million if those who have given up looking for work are included.
Banking Association of SA MD Cas Coovadia said businesses did not retrench because they wanted to. Because the economy was not growing, the banks would consider carefully “all sorts of options” before deciding on retrenchments.
“What needs to be done is for the unions and business to sit down and see how we deal with this reality that there’s no business and economic growth,” said Coovadia.
While it was Sasbo’s democratic right to embark on industrial action, “that certainly doesn’t help the economy and investors in any way”.
“We need them [investors] to come in and invest and the environment must be conducive ... strikes don’t help in ensuring that.”
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