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Takunda Maodza Assistant News Editor
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 employees.

This was reportedly communicated to the workers on Tuesday, dampening the festive 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 The Herald 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.

The Herald 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 (pay) for every year served, two weeks (pay) 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.

“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,” ends the memo.

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

It cited resource constraints.

Earlier this month NSSA retrenched 13 managers to streamline operations.

The affected managers included the following departments — human resources, finance, administration, engineering, audit.

The retrenchments were approved by the board.

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

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

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

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

However, NSSA board chairman Mr Robin Vela is on record confirming to The Herald on December 2 that the authority was trimming its workforce.