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Mr Robin Vela

Takunda Maodza, Harare Bureau
WORKERS’ morale has hit rock bottom at the National Social Security Authority amid revelations the pension fund is pressing ahead with plans to lay off hundreds of empoyees.

This was reportedly communicated to the workers on Tuesday dampening the festive season mood among the rank and file of the organisation.
NSSA fired 15 middle managers recently saying it was streamlining its operations.
Reliable sources at NSSA told our Harare Bureau that hundreds of employees would be retrenched next month.

Meanwhile, NSSA has started dangling a carrot.

It wrote to all the employees urging them to opt for voluntary retrenchment which comes with benefits instead of waiting to be axed.

Our Harare Bureau is in possession of the letter from NSSA general manager, Mrs Elizabeth Chitiga dated December 20 to the employees.

It reads: “NSSA is offering retrenchment to all interested employees. The voluntary retrenchment offer is open from the date of this notice up to 13th of January 2017 at 16.30 hours.”

The letter then lists the package that goes with the offer. “The voluntary retrenchment package is as follows — three months’ notice pay, two weeks for every year served, two weeks for every 10 years served as gratuity, two months’ severance pay and one month relocation allowance,” reads the memo to the employees.

NSSA made it clear nothing was negotiable and the workers have to accept the deal as it is.

“The package offered is not negotiable and is subject to taxation as directed by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. Management reserves the right to reject any application at its discretion. Should you be interested, kindly e-mail your application to DecemberHR2016@nssa or drop a physical copy to the general manager or chief executive officer,” reads the letter.

NSSA has failed to give its employees their annual bonuses for the first time in many years citing resources constraints.

Earlier this month NSSA retrenched 13 managers to streamline operations.

NSSA is a Government-run pension fund with more than $1 billion worth of assets under its management.

It is the biggest institutional investor on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange.

There have been reports of poor corporate management and ill-thought investment decisions running into $100 million.

Repeated efforts to get a comment from NSSA were fruitless yesterday.

However, NSSA board chairman Mr Robin Vela is on record confirming that the authority is in the process of trimming its work force.