Are you ready to lose employment?

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda, Labour Matters

ONE of the most difficult news to take for many employees is being told that their services are no longer needed and as such you shall be retrenched or being charged with a dismissible offence.

Many organisations today are undergoing changes that are forced on them by changing ways of doing business, Covid 19 and many others resulting in some skills being irrelevant and some employees becoming excess to the organisation’s needs.

Jane (not her real name) the marketing executive at company Y was told she was to be retrenched as the new marketing model that the organisation was adopting did not need her skills. The organisation had adopted a new strategic direction, which is information technology driven and having in place young aggressive executive team made of people in 20s and 30s. Jane was 48 years old and was not IT competent.

The news of losing her job for 18 years was devastating, her family plans and her MBA studies all went up in flames according to her at the moment. She was the breadwinner as her husband had been retrenched three years earlier and was battling with setting up a farming venture, which had just started to be profitable.

Jane’s case is not an unusual one. Some people have had worse stories to tell. In any job one has to always remember there is nothing called a ‘job for life’ in today’s world. Successful economies like California State and Germany have very few permanent jobs. California is estimated to have only 25 percent of the jobs permanent despite being a state with one of the strongest economies in the world, according to some economists. This is due to the everchanging ways of doing business.

In Zimbabwe when an employee’s services are no longer needed the legal thing to do is to retrench, although many employers will use the misconduct allegations as a means of dismissing at a cheaper cost, despite the option being unethical and damaging to the image of the business.

Employees have to always plan for life after employment, as anything can happen during the life of the employment contract resulting in premature termination of the contract and having to look for a new job or acquire new skills so as to be relevant again.

For senior managers when a new board or new councillors or ministers come in, job security is lost in a number of organisations as the new bosses may elect to get ‘new brooms’. Some new board members, councillors and ministers can elect to keep the existing team for fear of legal costs related to retrenchment, while others will do forensic audits to pick past errors by managers and use those as a basis for discipline handling and cheaper dismissals or as a tool to soften managers negotiate cheaper mutual separation after employees have been charged with misconduct.

While this is unethical its very common and it also damages the organisation’s brand name. Employees have to read signs that tell their future is not certain in the organisation.

Things like frequent rebukes by the boss in front of colleagues, failure to meet targets, being given an understudy without consultation, your duties being transferred to others, being left out of meetings where your attendance is critical, unilaterally cutting your benefits, being denied salary increase when others get it, having juniors who earn more than you and others could be a sign that you are no longer part of the organisation’s future and it’s time to start planning your exit and leaving.

Once news that you are being retrenched or you are charged with a dismissible offence is given to you, there is no need to panic but one has to activate a possible exit plan, which could either be negotiating a retrenchment package or strategically fighting the dismissal to a point where you get a package of some kind.

There are, however, hopeless dismissal cases where it is cheaper to just exit without putting up a fight. There are also cases where the best is to litigate to the end. In conclusion, whatever choice one makes should be the best option available guided by the individual’s long term exit plan and other facts available. Next week I will look at disciplinary cases and mutual separation.