On Thursday, Cosatu backed Sasbo’s industrial action and said the strike would act as a buildup to the labour federation’s national strike against job losses and retrenchments on October 7. It said all its unions would be mobilised to ensure Sasbo’s shutdown is a success.
In an e-mailed response to Business Day’s query on Friday, Absa said that while it respects Sasbo’s intention to down tools, it has not yet received notification of the protest.
Kokela hit back, saying: “Nothing will force me to give them notice now. According to the law I have to give them a 48-hour notice.”
Absa said that it has business continuity and contingency plans that would be deployed as and when necessary, and that it has been reorganising the business after introducing a new strategy and operating model in 2018.
“While there have been redundancies, the restructuring has also opened new opportunities, through new roles being created to advance our strategy,” Absa said, adding it has in place support mechanisms for affected employees.
“Sasbo is an important stakeholder to us. We are consulting with Sasbo throughout the process and we have in place support mechanisms for affected employees.”
Standard Bank spokesperson Ross Linstrom said customers would be kept informed should there be any change or disruption to their banking activity.
“Standard Bank provides its clients with multiple channels through which they can conduct their banking activities. These include the mobile app, USSD [internet banking, unstructured supplementary services data], ATMs, branches as well as the ability to transact at retail chains like Spar, Checkers and Pick n Pay,” he said.