The Social Plan, an outcome of the Presidential Jobs Summit, emphasises the tripartite relationship in both governance and delivery. Organisations in decline should strive to avoid job losses and engage the Social Plan to help them devise turnaround and redeployment strategies.

Productivity SA was tasked at the Jobs Summit with the responsibility for the first phase of the Social Plan. This phase urges organisations in decline and the unions to collaborate in establishing Future Forums that would look ahead to identify problems, challenges and possible solutions through turnaround and redeployment strategies.

A fundamental element of the Social Plan is recognising that every effort at achieving economic growth involves people. Programmes are to be introduced to address skills development and to empower retrenches to face demands in the workplace.

The Social Plan’s Technical Support Facility

The Social Plan’s Technical Support Facility was established under the auspices of the Social Plan and Productivity Advisory Council of the Productivity SA. The Social Plan’s Technical Support Facility, within the framework of the Social Plan, has been designed to provide assistance and support to Future Forums. Its role is to facilitate ongoing discussion between workers and their representatives and employers about the future of their organisation or industry sector with a view to developing and implementing long-term strategies that would help reduce job losses.

A Future Forum (if a Future Forum has not yet been formally constituted, the employer in agreement with the workers and their representatives) may approach the Social Plan’s Technical Support Facility to request technical assistance in developing long-term strategies and to implement plans to support its strategies. Proposals arising from the Social Plan process should be based on agreement between the employer and the relevant worker parties. The process must operate within the requirements of the law dealing with fair retrenchment procedures.

Technical assistance

The Social Plan’s Technical Support Facility provides assistance and support to organisations and industry sectors to prevent future job losses and employment decline. The Facility will assist and support Future Forums on a partially subsidised basis and provide the following services:

• Facilitate the development of Future Forums and help to promote ongoing discussion between worker representatives and employers about the future of the organisation
• Assist Future Forums to anticipate problems, challenges and possible solutions and to develop turnaround and/or redeployment strategies that could help reduce job losses
• Facilitate access to government assistance programmes for the implementation of plans proposed by the Future Forums
• Develop criteria and prioritise industry sectors that are in decline (following approved applications from industry sectors), conduct in-depth assessments (limited to three per year) to analyse problems, recommend solutions in troubled sectors, and develop and agree on sector programmes or initiatives to provide meaningful assistance on a subsidised basis to prioritise sectors
• Develop and maintain a confidential database to provide information on industry sector trends, and develop early warning systems for sectors and organisations in trouble (decline or distress) to identify, timeously, those that are likely to fail

Criteria for assistance

The Social Plan’s Technical Support Facility reports to a Social Plan Committee that makes final decision about the Facility’s assistance, subject to ratification by the Social Plan and Productivity Advisory Council. The following framework provides guidelines for assistance to organisations in troubled sectors (in decline or in distress), prioritised by the Social Plan and Productivity Advisory Council:

• Organisations should meet the following criteria:

F      A breakeven analysis should prove with reasonable certainty that the organisation can be turned around (e.g. it should be financially sustainable in the long term, have or develop spare capacity for growth, have sufficient market potential to become viable)

F      Redeployment strategies should materially impact on the long-term survival and/or competitiveness of the organisation

F      For each employment opportunity created, the cost of intervention should not exceed the potential value to be derived

F      Companies should have 50 or more employees

• A Future Forum should have been established, and there must be agreement between the employer and the relevant worker parties.
• Social Plan funds are available to cover the cost of strategic interventions and if applicable, the organisation must agree to cover its portion of the project costs.
• On approval of the application, the participants have to undertake certain contractual obligations by way of a memorandum of agreement defining these obligations and rights.

Future Forums

The Social Plan would be more effective when both employers and workers are proactively involved in preventing job losses. Future Forums should be established to identify and analyse problems in an organisation in good time. The analysis results would help the employer to devise appropriate solutions to the identified problems and to implement solutions in a properly planned manner. If such analysis is postponed until a retrenchment proposal has been tabled, serious time limitations would hamper and limit the possible options.

A future Forum is a partnership between the management, the workers and their representatives. It is established to look ahead for problems, challenges and potential solutions to the problems facing the organisation. The parties should openly – and as early as possible – debate issues that concern their future.

Employers should then engage in serious strategic planning and evaluate progress at regular intervals. Early warning systems should be put in place to enable the Future Forums to identify problems as early as possible and to formulate appropriate solutions. Turnaround or redeployment strategies should be developed. Several government funds are available to partially subsidise the cost of strategic interventions.

The objectives of the Future Forums are to:

• Promote ongoing discussions between worker representatives and employers about the future of the industry sector and/or the organisation
• Look ahead to identify problems, challenges and possible solutions
• Develop turnaround or redeployment strategies to help reduce job losses and to improve business sustainability
• Structure and implement proposals agreed on by both the employer and the worker parties.

A Future Forum should notify the Minister of Labour as soon as possible and then seek Social Plan assistance to support implementation of its plans. For the purposes of these guidelines, and when Future Forums have not yet been formally constituted, employers have to agree with the workers and their representatives to notify the Minister of Labour and to request assistance from the Social Plan’s Technical Support Facility, the Department of Labour or the Department of Provincial and Local Government.