http://www.finance24.co.za/Finance/Companies/0,,1518-24_1559819,00.html?kps=193
6% of workers must go - Telkom
19/07/2004 10:51 - (SA)
Thabang Mokopanele
Johannesburg - Telkom on Monday stated that only 82 or 6% of the 1 381 employees earmarked for retrenchments are likely to be forcefully retrenched.
Telkom group human resources director Oupa Magashula said the company continued to explore other alternatives to retain affected workers.
"We have an agency which retrains most of our employees, so that they can be redeployed somewhere else in the company. It is not accurate that we just dump people without giving them that opportunity," Magashula said.
Unions representatives are up in arms against Telkom plans to retrench workers because of restructuring.
As part of its ongoing drive to create shareholder value, Telkom said it continued to review, streamline and refocus its business in response to the changing market in which it operates.
"I just wish people could stop using the word retrenchment and rather say affected workers," he said.
Bonus for CEO
Telkom currently employs 35 000 workers and aims to reduce the number to about 28 000 in three year's time.
"Look, most of Telkom workers have a matric and it becomes easy for us to retrain them to have other skills. This hype around the number of people affected is not on because we are going to retrain some of these people," Magashula added.
He added that employees whose jobs become redundant would have a choice of going into Telkom's agency for career opportunities for up to 12 months with full pay and benefits whilst waiting to be redeployed or re-skilled within Telkom or elsewhere in the ICT sector.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has asked for government intervention on Telkom plans to retrench workers.
Asked to comment on CWU plead to the government, Magashula said the company will wait for the government questions first.
"It is difficult for (the) government to criticise us because Telkom is run proficiently and delivers good results to its investors. We are trying to keep our costs flat at the moment and that is our focus going forward," He noted.
He added that Telkom aimed to reduce its labour cost by 7% in this financial year.
Commenting on a bonus given to Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxasana, Magashula said it was due to the company having had a spectacular financial year.
"Nxasana's salary is based on performance hence he got the bonus. Our capital expenditure has come down coupled with the strength of the rand which boosted our results," he said.
Edited by Mahap Msiza
IMO, now while the media is focused on Telkom they will tread lightly. But why does it always take media attention to get these people to do anything.
<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">
6% of workers must go - Telkom
19/07/2004 10:51 - (SA)
Thabang Mokopanele
Johannesburg - Telkom on Monday stated that only 82 or 6% of the 1 381 employees earmarked for retrenchments are likely to be forcefully retrenched.
Telkom group human resources director Oupa Magashula said the company continued to explore other alternatives to retain affected workers.
"We have an agency which retrains most of our employees, so that they can be redeployed somewhere else in the company. It is not accurate that we just dump people without giving them that opportunity," Magashula said.
Unions representatives are up in arms against Telkom plans to retrench workers because of restructuring.
As part of its ongoing drive to create shareholder value, Telkom said it continued to review, streamline and refocus its business in response to the changing market in which it operates.
"I just wish people could stop using the word retrenchment and rather say affected workers," he said.
Bonus for CEO
Telkom currently employs 35 000 workers and aims to reduce the number to about 28 000 in three year's time.
"Look, most of Telkom workers have a matric and it becomes easy for us to retrain them to have other skills. This hype around the number of people affected is not on because we are going to retrain some of these people," Magashula added.
He added that employees whose jobs become redundant would have a choice of going into Telkom's agency for career opportunities for up to 12 months with full pay and benefits whilst waiting to be redeployed or re-skilled within Telkom or elsewhere in the ICT sector.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) has asked for government intervention on Telkom plans to retrench workers.
Asked to comment on CWU plead to the government, Magashula said the company will wait for the government questions first.
"It is difficult for (the) government to criticise us because Telkom is run proficiently and delivers good results to its investors. We are trying to keep our costs flat at the moment and that is our focus going forward," He noted.
He added that Telkom aimed to reduce its labour cost by 7% in this financial year.
Commenting on a bonus given to Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxasana, Magashula said it was due to the company having had a spectacular financial year.
"Nxasana's salary is based on performance hence he got the bonus. Our capital expenditure has come down coupled with the strength of the rand which boosted our results," he said.
Edited by Mahap Msiza
IMO, now while the media is focused on Telkom they will tread lightly. But why does it always take media attention to get these people to do anything.
<b><hr noshade size="1"></b><font size="2"><font color="red"><b>You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.</b></font id="red"></font id="size2">