Times Of Swaziland: COMPANIES GET GREEN LIGHT TO RETRENCH

COMPANIES GET GREEN LIGHT TO RETRENCH
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Sibongile Sukati on 19/01/2021 09:04:00


MBABANE – As the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage the
country, employers have been given the green light to start applying for the
retrenchment of employees.
When the pandemic first hit the country in March 2020, employers were
discouraged from retrenching their staff, but only allowed to apply for layoffs,
which would last for a period not longer than two months. Over 18 000 employees
had already been on layoff towards the end of 2020. However, last Saturday, the
Labour Commissioner’s Office issued a notice stating that employers could now
submit applications for Retrenchment Notices, Applications for Layoffs and
Labour Compliance Certificates. According to the Labour Commissioner, Mthunzi
Shabangu, many companies had been hard hit by the effects of the pandemic and
could not function and as a result, wanted to retrench some members of their
staff.
Rescue
However, Shabangu encouraged employers to utilise the business rescue measures
which had been introduced by government through the Ministry of Commerce,
Industry and Trade.
These include the E45 million fund, which government has launched, where
businesspeople can apply for a loan. The fund is managed by EswatiniBank.
Shabangu said as part of the initial guidelines, which they had published at the
early stages of the emergence of COVID-19 in April last year, from the
employment and labour sector through Legal Notice No.22 of 2020, they were meant
to mitigate against immediate permanent job losses.
He said retrenchment was the permanent cessation of employment. “It is for
that reason that during the subsistence of those guidelines from March 27 up to
November 18, 2020, retrenchments due to business distress caused by COVID-19
were prohibited in the country,” he explained. He said instead, employers were
encouraged to rather apply for unpaid layoffs of their employees. The labour
commissioner said, however, with the new regulations which started operating on
November 19, 2020, they had since relaxed the initial restrictions by allowing
retrenchments as a result of business distress caused by the effects of
COVID-19.