Johannesburg – The state has set the ball rolling in its desperate bid to cut the public wage bill by giving workers aged between 55 and 60 until September to retire without pension penalties.
Guidelines for applying for early retirement have been released to thousands of public servants. The Star has seen a copy of the guidelines and also learnt that unions and workers have started mulling the offer, which became effective from
April 1.
Teachers, police officers, prison warders, soldiers and intelligence service officers are among those targeted for penalty-free early retirements.
Reading the Budget Speech in February, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced plans to cut the national and provincial pay budgets by R27 billion over the next three years.
“The public wage bill is unsustainable. We must shift expenditure to investment,” Mboweni said in his speech.
But, in documents detailing the guidelines, the Departme
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