The Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa) issued a statement on Friday in which it criticised the Netcare Group for possible planned retrenchments at some of its facilities over the next few weeks.
According to Hospersa, the private healthcare group issued the union with a notice that it plans to restructure its business operations in its hospital division in an attempt to reduce the company's current payroll costs.
Hospersa has vowed to use all its legal avenues to block any possible retrenchments. According to the union about 500 employees could be affected by the structural review.
"We reject the reasons given by Netcare for the possible retrenchments," said Hospersa public relations officer Kevin Halama in a statement.
"The group's intentions to retrench employees will leave many families without bread winners in a country where unemployment has reached
alarming levels, and this we cannot allow."