In a meeting held on Wednesday 11 March to hear employees’ grievances around the payment of 2014 performance bonuses, MTN SA undertook to provide feedback to employees on their bonus proposals. The MTN SA leadership team met with employees today as promised.
MTN SA confirms that there will be no additional performance bonus payments to employees for the 2014 financial year. This decision follows a request by general and supervisory level employees for the company to consider granting them an ex gratia payment or higher bonus payment, as they deem the payment of 4% of their annual pensionable salary insufficient.
As with any company, MTN SA is expected to deliver a certain level of growth in order to declare a performance bonus. In the previous financial year, MTN SA did not deliver the required growth and thus was unable to declare a performance bonus.
While MTN is one Group, the underlying operating companies, including MTN SA, are independent of each other and each has its own board, expectations and responsibilities to shareholders. Notwithstanding the independence of each operating company, the performance bonus policy, business principles and bonus calculations methodology is consistent across all operations.
During 2014, MTN Group continued to work hard to deliver on its vision. The 2014 financial year however, proved to be one of the most difficult for the Group. As a result, across the 22 operating companies evaluated for performance bonuses, only 15 entities qualified for payments and seven, including MTN SA, did not qualify for any performance bonus payment.
Explaining the payment of the 4% payment to employees, MTN SA Chief Human Resources Officer, Themba Nyathi says: “MTN is fully aware of the diminished line of sight at the lower levels and in lieu of this, ensures that there’s a guaranteed portion of any performance bonus. That is, even if an Opco does not qualify for a bonus payment, this doesn’t prejudice general and supervisory staff at job levels 1 and 2.
As a result, in a year when a bonus is declared, the first 4% of the calculated bonus percentage is the guaranteed 4%. In the absence of a performance bonus being declared, which is the case for MTN SA; employees at these levels are guaranteed a 4% payment. This is a group-wide policy, and applies across all MTN operations,” Nyathi concludes.
ENDS
FOR MORE MEDIA INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Bridget Bhengu: Senior Manager – PR and Communications, MTN SA
Cell: 083 212 1964 / E-mail: Bhengu_b@mtn.co.za
Mamello Raborifi: PR Specialist, MTN SA
Cell: 083 214 5681 / E-mail: mamello_r@mtn.co.za
ABOUT MTN GROUP
Launched in 1994, the MTN Group is a multinational telecommunications group, operating in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The MTN Group is listed on the JSE Securities Exchange in South Africa under the share code: “MTN.” As of 31 December 2014, MTN recorded 223.0 million subscribers across its operations in Afghanistan, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea Republic, Iran, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zambia. Visit us at www.mtn.com
