{"id":282710,"date":"2018-11-08T07:42:03","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T05:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=282710"},"modified":"2018-11-08T07:42:03","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T05:42:03","slug":"bcx-to-begin-retrenchments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/broadband\/282710\/bcx-to-begin-retrenchments\/","title":{"rendered":"BCX to begin retrenchments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BCX staff have received an email from the company\u2019s CEO Jonas Bogoshi informing them they have started a \u201csection 189 process\u201d, according to a report by <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business-telecoms\/283798-bcx-to-start-staff-retrenchments.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MyBroadband<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A section 189 process refers to the retrenchment of staff due to operational requirements.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday, we have served the unions with Section 189 notice which invites the unions to attend the first CCMA facilitated consultation session meeting set for the 21st November 2018,\u201d states the email, seen by MyBroadband.<\/p>\n<p>It stated that \u201cmany discussions and various considerations\u201d for alternatives took place. However, strategies in place to mitigate declining voice revenues will \u201cnot substitute for the decline as the replacement technologies and new revenue streams are at lower margins\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe changes within our organisation must also be considered against what is happening in our environment. South Africa is in a technical recession. We are expecting that current and potential clients will continue to withhold IT spend in this economic environment,\u201d states the email.<\/p>\n<p>The Section 189 process is applicable to BCX employees only, it added.<\/p>\n<p>In a separate document addressed to labour unions, which MyBroadband has seen, the retrenchment process is said to affect approximately 790 employees.<\/p>\n<p>Telkom Group, BCX\u2019s parent, was asked for comment on the matter, but it did not immediately reply.<br \/>\nBCX exits<\/p>\n<p>The notice to staff follows two significant sets of events at BCX and Telkom respectively in recent months.<\/p>\n<p>At BCX, there has been an exodus of top executives this year.<\/p>\n<p>In June, then-BCX CEO Ian Russell left the company to work more broadly within the industry. Russell was replaced by Bogoshi.<\/p>\n<p>In August, BCX Chief Financial Officer Refilwe Nkabinde resigned, and was replaced by Zweli Vilakazi from the Telkom Group.<\/p>\n<p>Also in August, BCX COO Mike Buttner resigned from his position. He \u201cresigned for personal reasons\u201d, said BCX.<\/p>\n<p>At Telkom, the company announced in September it would start offering voluntary separation packages and voluntary early retirement packages to staff.<\/p>\n<p>It stated at the time that the \u201ccumulative effect of past regulations continues to impact our business operations\u201d.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/broadband\/280799\/cell-c-is-looking-to-expand-cape-towns-wi-fi-network-using-street-lights\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cell C looking to expand Cape Town Wi-Fi network using street lights<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BCX staff have received an email from the company\u2019s CEO Jonas Bogoshi informing them they have started a section 189 process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":265123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5553],"tags":[4445,26],"class_list":["post-282710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-broadband","tag-bcx","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282730,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282710\/revisions\/282730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}