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The other side of losing your job

8 Dec 2008

Recently South Africa's largest newspaper and magazine publisher announced it would be cutting up to 20% of its workforce. Apart from losing their jobs, however, those who are retrenched also, naturally, lose their medical-aid benefits.

Employees in other South African companies face the same threat and while the shock of losing your job is hard enough to handle in itself, the load becomes even heavier if the breadwinner or any of their family members are ill or require a surgical procedure. If any member of the family is on chronic medicine, that is an extra burden yet again.

This article, which appears in The New York Times describes the experiences of many people in the US, where unemployment figures have reached a level not seen in 25 years. South Africans who are retrenched will face the same challenges as their American counterparts.