THE REDUCTION OF EMPLOYEE

Abstract

Leave benefits are a source of investment for most employees. Employees accumulate leave benefits as savings for encashment on retirement. Leave benefits are commuted to cash when employees face difficult situations that require readily available cash. The purpose of the research is to explore the consequences of the decision by the City of Johannesburg to reduce leave benefits of existing employees after transformation. The reduction of leave benefits can be seen as a deficiency or weakness in the City’s employment structure. We argue that the City employees’ leave benefits should be benchmarked against best practices from municipalities, for example, municipalities in developed countries, which embrace employee benefits as a social responsibility. The research recommends that the City’s leave benefits be restructured to encapsulate best practices that ensure full security in terms of savings plan as well as maintenance of healthy life styles, that is, in line with the ILO convention’s best practices. The research will be achieved through an exploration of the City’s leave benefit plans and policies before and after transformation to ascertain the magnitude of the reduction of leave benefits, which has implications primarily on employees’ financial needs and secondarily psychological needs that affect job satisfaction