Telkom won’t back down on retrenchments
Telkom says that while it respects unions’ rights to fight for their workers, it isn’t going to stop its retrenchment process.
Labour unions Solidarity and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have both come out against Telkom’s latest round of retrenchments, with the former declaring an official dispute on the matter.
On Friday, Telkom issued retrenchment notices to 105 of its employees who could not be placed in alternative posts in the company.
The CWU noted that Telkom had targeted 223 management staff for retrenchment, and 302 had subsequently accepted retirement packages.
“The target that Telkom wanted to achieve was 223, which meant that with 302 having been allowed to exit through severance packages they had overachieved their target of 223,” the CWU said, implying there was no need for additional retrenchments.
Solidarity, meanwhile, advised the telecoms group to retract the retrenchment notices and to first finalise the appointments that have to be made following the previous round of job advertisements.
In response to the unions, Telkom said that the key focus of its restructuring process was always to retain and place qualified and experienced staff to secure the future commercial sustainability of the business.
“Simply placing people into positions, regardless of their competencies, qualification, or experience just to avoid their retrenchment would be a huge disservice to the business,” Telkom said.
“While we respect labour’s right to protect their members, Telkom must place the right people in the right structures and roles.”
The group said that its restructuring has not been driven by headcount reduction targets, but rather by business imperatives that will shape the long-term commercial sustainability of the company.
“Telkom will therefore not be withdrawing the Notices of Termination that have been legitimately issued in line with the agreed upon process.”
Telkom aims to reduce its management pool, which will affect up to 2,650 managerial staff.
The company is looking to reduce the number of management layers and achieve an employee cost-to-revenue ratio of 25% over the next 5 years, from 30% currently.
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