An employer who intends to reduce his employee requirements due to operational requirements must notify the union(s) concerned of the number of employees and reasons therefor at least 4 weeks prior to implementation.

The company and union must meet within 5 working days of the union’s receipt of notification to explore alternatives to retrenchments, such as working short-time, limiting overtime, transfer of individual employees to other operations, voluntary early retirement and/or other practical alternatives the parties may agree upon.

Should the parties be unable to reach an agreeable alternative to retrenchment, the company must supply the union(s) with the following information:

Employees affected by retrenchment must be given one week=s notice of retrenchment or alternatively, one week=s pay in lieu of notice.

The union(s) may negotiate severance pay with the employer.

In the event of the employer requiring increasing his labour compliment, retrenched employees must be given first option for the vacancies which are required to be filled.