An agreement between Telkom and Solidarity about the telco’s restructuring and retrenchment process was made a court order by the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“In terms of the court order a facilitator must be appointed to facilitate the consultations regarding the proposed retrenchments,” Solidarity deputy general secretary Johan Kruger said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“The court order further states that Telkom is prohibited from making any appointments or carrying out any retrenchments until the facilitation process has been concluded.”<\/p>\n
The facilitation process began on Monday.<\/p>\n
“We trust that the new consultation process led by a facilitator will take place correctly and transparently,” Kruger said.<\/p>\n
“We are delighted that the legal process that we followed together with the public pressure against Telkom’s planned layoffs had the desired effect.”<\/p>\n
He said the court order was a victory in the larger fight for the jobs of Solidarity members.<\/p>\n
“We are aware that the big fight regarding Telkom’s business rationale and the proposed use of race as a selection criterion still lies ahead,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Solidarity is determined to do its utmost to protect the rights of its members both during and after the consultation process.”<\/p>\n
The agreement between Telkom and Solidarity was reached on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Solidarity spokesman Marius Croucamp said in a statement at the time that it also halted the process where Telkom intended using race as a layoff criteria.<\/p>\n
On July 3, Telkom spokesman Pynee Chetty said the company would use various criteria during retrenchments.<\/p>\n
“It is important to note that employment equity is only one of the criteria that will be applied to these processes.”<\/p>\n
Other criteria included qualification and experience, best fit for the job and “last one in, first one out”.<\/p>\n
“That will be when more than one employee qualifies for a position,” Chetty said at the time.<\/p>\n
Retrenchments going ahead: Telkom<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Telkom suspends retrenchments<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Telkom jobs lotto gets colour-coded<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Telkom dragged to court over race based retrenchments<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n