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The unions are a bunch of stupid shts. They fail to understand where the industry is heading and think that protest now secures their futures. Those twits have no clue. I hope they don't bring Telkom completely to its knees, because the massive job loss that could ensue will only result in an increase in criminal activity. Not to mention more riff-raff at our robots.
If the unions shouldn't just think about themselves, then who should they think about?
Telkom has been slow in implementing any kind of new technology and usually charges a fortune for the technologies it does implement. It has not cared about the advancement of South Africa as a country; the continued high cost of landline calls is proof of that, as is the high cost of ADSL rental, landline rental and leased line rental. Telkom's only concern is its bottom line.
So while the unions (how many people is that by the way?) stop being selfish and let Telkom get on with the business of making money, who will Telkom be thinking about?
Another thought, how exactly will the outsourcing company manage to do the same job for less, while still managing to turn a profit. There are only 3 ways:
a) They will cut corners, i.e. use cheaper materials and take short cuts to cut down on man hours
b) They will employ less people but expect them to do the same amount of work. How long do we wait for Telkom to come and install phone lines? I am sure that with less staff the process will be much quicker. At the moment they all probably just getting in each others way and slowing things down.
c) They will pay their employees less. So if we assume that many of the staff Telkom will be retrenching ends up working for the outsourcing company (because where else will it get the required skills), a large portion of South Africa's work force will be taking a pay cut.
All of this will only serve to improve the unrivalled service we currently receive from Telkom.
Telkom has been slow in implementing any kind of new technology and usually charges a fortune for the technologies it does implement. It has not cared about the advancement of South Africa as a country; the continued high cost of landline calls is proof of that, as is the high cost of ADSL rental, landline rental and leased line rental. Telkom's only concern is its bottom line.
So while the unions (how many people is that by the way?) stop being selfish and let Telkom get on with the business of making money, who will Telkom be thinking about?
Another thought, how exactly will the outsourcing company manage to do the same job for less, while still managing to turn a profit. There are only 3 ways:
a) They will cut corners, i.e. use cheaper materials and take short cuts to cut down on man hours
b) They will employ less people but expect them to do the same amount of work. How long do we wait for Telkom to come and install phone lines? I am sure that with less staff the process will be much quicker. At the moment they all probably just getting in each others way and slowing things down.
c) They will pay their employees less. So if we assume that many of the staff Telkom will be retrenching ends up working for the outsourcing company (because where else will it get the required skills), a large portion of South Africa's work force will be taking a pay cut.
All of this will only serve to improve the unrivalled service we currently receive from Telkom.
Unrivalled? ****.
There is.. but claiming to be unrivalled while Telkom as a company did everything in its power to cling to its monopoly is what made me angry.
Its like a body builder beating up a small kid and claiming he is the strongest.
Either way, some people would have you "****". Welcome to MyBB.
oronte
Expert Member
It's not as simple as the unions are selfish. That's a lot of jobs to lose - did BT have to retrench that many people? I'm just saying that's a lot of people's lives and families affected, will one of you be hiring all of them?
km2
Expert Member
The fourth way is improving efficiencies, and Telkom is one company seriously in need of doing that. For whatever reason they don't seem to have the will to do it while it's still in-house, so hopefully a contractor will have more desire to do so.
Think of when you call a telephone provider, how much time you spend waiting for the agent to do things even once you've gotten through. They're being held back by rubbish, slow systems that don't do everything they need so they frequently have to put you on hold and try and get a supervisor. Not to mention that there are many things which we call Telkom to do which we'd be able to do far faster from a comprehensive online account control centre.
zamicro
Expert Member
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A very nice post. Thank you.
PS: I could see the sarcasm
You have issues. Go and sort it out elsewhere.
I think this is what the unions is trying to do.
I for one agree that telkom must cut its staff to stay in the game. The problem I see with the current approach is that it is the workers at the bottom that will be affected, but the fat cats at the top will stay on. That is no way to slim down a company. This will surely result in worse service again. Who can remember when telkom cut its technical staff?
My 2c.
They've been outsourcing a lot of positions for a while, most of their new ones are via recruiting companies such they do not have to offer certain things. Also job stability is what will change for the workers even if they able to retain position as positions as a contractor is not the same a permanent. And yes, there is a big difference in pay.
Their members maybe?
The landline call cost is a lot better than anything else that is available... Callphone networks are mostly at least five times more expensive, and that is without bundles like Closer... (The Waya-Waya prepaid option have good line rental at R120 / year, but ADSL is not an option on it, so it is not really relevant...)
They may use the employees to do work for more companies than just Telkom... (Which would require other companies to also use the companies that the work is outsourced to) (To add a (probably bad) analogy: It is similar to how visualization can reduce server costs, by using resources more efficiently, rather than have one part overloaded and another idle, you end up with a more evenly utilized environment...)
Of course outsourcing also have the advantage that you can put the required level of service in a contract and have your legal department force the vendor to keep it up... (Without having to deal with the details of how it is done...)
So they're going to be a marketing and strategy company instead of a telecoms company. Is it just me or does it seem crazy to anyone else to outsource your core business and think you'll be a success?
"outsourcing is the most effective and least damaging way of ensuring that Telkom, which is far from the lean and mean organisation it needs to become, is ready to deal with the serious competitive challenges it will soon face."
That is an outrageous claim, particularly given the paucity of substantiation.
"outsourcing is the most effective and least damaging way of ensuring that Telkom, which is far from the lean and mean organisation it needs to become, is ready to deal with the serious competitive challenges it will soon face."
That is an outrageous claim, particularly given the paucity of substantiation.