Telkom says it wants to restructure 300 positions in its Corporate Centre as well as transfer 1,600 jobs to Business Connexion (BCX) as part of a section 197 business transfer. Furthermore, it wants to outsource several of its other functions. In the letter the company says it anticipates that its core workforce of 13,895 will consist of only 8,000 employees by the end of 2016.
The Deputy General Secretary of the Communications Industry at Solidarity, Marius Croucamp, says his union will not hesitate to fight unfair retrenchments in court. They have done so in the past and will continue to do so in future.
“This year is the tenth consecutive year that Telkom undergoes comprehensive restructuring. However, the latest announcement of 6 000 possible retrenchments is the largest ever and therefore the reasons for the retrenchments should be challenged,” Croucamp said.
Although Telkom has not had substantial consultations with trade unions about the proposed retrenchment process, the company indicated that it wanted to finalise the retrenchment process as early as July this year.
Meanwhile, wage negotiations between Telkom, Solidarity, the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) and the South African Communications Union (Sacu) will start next Monday. This comes after the process was delayed for several months and Solidarity, in terms of its recognition agreement with Telkom, declared a dispute with the company.
