GEORGE NEWS - The international company EXL, a big employer in George, retrenched some of its employees at its local branch on 1 March.
One of the staff members who was laid off, told George Herald that about 200 employees had to go, but the company's senior manager of media relations, Keith Little, said he could not confirm the number, as the employees' "status information is confidential".
The opening of this branch nine months ago was widely welcomed in the business sector and by George Municipality because of its impactful contribution to job creation.
The retrenched employee said the announcement came unexpectedly.
"On 29 February we went to work as usual. Our shift started at 16:00, so we logged into our systems as per normal.
"After about 20 minutes we were all called to log out and go home and return the following day at 09:00. That was when we were informed."
The employee said they were then given letters containing a lump sum offer as part of a separation agreement, but she was not happy with what was being offered. "The amount is unfair and it is also unfair that they did not inform us earlier. It came so suddenly."
Little explained their decision to retrench: "As our business needs shift, based on operational requirements, we need to align our resources to match those needs.
"In this case operational requirements dictated that we reduce the number of roles required in one specific area of our business.
"Our operations in George are still continuing. We continue to grow our global workforce, which now stands in excess of 54 000, and we make every effort to reallocate staff wherever possible."
He said retrenched employees were allowed to make represen-tations or proposals, and received the information relevant to the retrenchments.
"We followed all the local laws relevant to South Africa. This includes giving prior notice of the company's contemplation of retrenchments, and all relevant information regarding the possible retrenchments was provided.
"A consultation process was followed. Employees' representations have certainly been considered throughout.
"We reduced operations in one specific area of the business."
The George branch is a call centre that renders certain customer services on behalf of companies that contract EXL for that purpose.
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