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UFS amends the retirement age for all staff members to 65

10 December 2021 | Story Lacea Loader

The Council of the University of the Free State (UFS) approved the retirement age of all staff members to 65 this week.

“The current retirement age for staff members of the UFS is 65 years for those appointed prior to 1 June 1998, and 60 years for those appointed after 1 June 1998. The Council’s decision to amend the retirement age to 65 comes after an extensive benchmarking process involving the university’s two labour unions, NEHAWU and UVPERSU, which requested that the retirement age of all staff members be adjusted to 65,” said Prof Francis Petesen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor.

This amendment brings the university in line with other universities and will assist in overcoming a negative impact on the recruitment and attraction of high-calibre academic and specialist staff.

Parallel to the amendment of the retirement age in the Conditions of Services, the university is also adapting the allocation of vacation leave. “We are currently facing a challenge in terms of the provision of the staff leave liability, which has a major financial implication for the UFS. In consultation with stakeholder unions the accumulation of vacation leave has been adjusted to a maximum of five days per year,” said Prof Petersen.

The new retirement age to 65 and the adjusted accumulated vacation leave days will be affected from 1 January 2022. Staff who are set to retire on 31 December 2021 may opt to continue to the age 65. This amendment will not apply to staff that may have already retired.

Adjusted vacation as from 1 January 2022:

Academic staff:

Current number of vacation days: 42

Approved Leave Days

Number of vacation days: 30

Additional research leave days: 12 (non-cumulative and expires at the end of each calendar year)

Support staff:

Deputy Director and higher levels

Peromnes Level: 1 – 6

Current number of leave vacation days: 36

Approved number of vacation days: 30

Assistant Director to Officer

Peromnes Level: 7 – 14

Current number of leave vacation days: 30 - 28

Approved number of vacation days: 28

Service Workers

Peromnes Level: 15 - 18

Current number of leave vacation days: 24

Approved number of vacation days: 24

News Archive

Valuable advice for businesses in difficult times

2013-04-15

Prof Helena van Zyl, Director of the Business School, and Dr Reuel Khoza.
Photo: Stephen Collett
15 April 2013

Dr Reuel Khoza, Chairman of the Nedbank Group, shared the group’s valuable rules for managing a bank in difficult times in an MBA lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus. Dr Khoza is a visiting professor at the UFS Business School.

He focused in the lecture on the group’s business and leadership model and highlighted some do’s and don’ts:

Do not surprise your stakeholders on the downside – communicate transparently, particularly when there is bad news.
Retrenching staff to contain costs should be a last resort – the damage to corporate culture from retrenchments is immense. Follow and support your customers – get as close to them as possible because business changes slowly, but customer behaviour can change in an instant.
Integrated central capital and funding management.
Entrench well-established reporting, KPIs and measurement systems.
Ensure strong independent risk management.
Manage your cost base – anticipate downturns and re-base your costs to avoid crisis-cost management.
Take advantage of opportunities – an economic downturn creates a situation where valuations fall and assets are sold off, which can be a great opportunity for acquisitions.
Keep innovating – innovation does not have to be a costly exercise, as the right culture can promote and encourage experimentation and collaboration.
Whatever you do – avoid a price war, as expedient pricing decisions may hurt the business in the longer term.

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