Att: The Editor Business Day
Email: busday@bdfm.co.za
Your Edition Monday 7^th September 2015

It is interesting to read that many employees are accessing their severance payment without any financial advice whatsoever.  My experience has been over the past two years, that employees are so desperate to access the retrenchment packages that they are even volunteering to take the retrenchment when they are not in line to be dismissed for the operational requirements.

We are living in a period where employees have taken out loans just to survive.  These loans have mounted up and they are being threatened by the very loan sharks that came to their rescue.  Employees see a quick way out when they can access a retrenchment package, pension or provident fund payments and all outstanding leave pay.  Very few people think of how they are going to obtain employment in the months to come, they are merely worrying about sorting out the financial mess right now.

There is a desperate need for the Department of Labour to step in to ensure that people receive proper advice before they even access their severance payment.  My understanding is that many of the trade unions are setting up systems to advise people as to what to do with severance payments once they have it but my suggestion is that we need that advice before people actually even go forward to accept their payment.

Michael Bagraim