Telkom explains call centre mess

[MickeyD]

Did they not expect a mess after letting all the temps go & then on top of that wanting to retrench permanent staff left right & center

Mmmm I see lawsuits against them after retrenchments and if not offering the retrenched the jobs first.

I must say and it pains me to say it (because I hate anything parastatal/government related) that I have reported 3 faults online in the last 10 days and every one of them received attention within 24 hours and I got calls the same day except yesterday being Sunday.

That's interesting. I would have liked more depth in this story because my experience with call centres is they could be related to either (or both) staffing (as Telkom claims here) but also to specific network issues (or accounts issues). It may be that your area has a low incidence of faults (so easily rectified) whereas other areas have network issues causing widespread problems, so leading to multiple calls and a backlog. I'm thinking of storms and lightning, the new ADSL system etc.

So Telkom own and employ these call centre personnel? I always thought it was an outsourced serviced whose job was logging and following up on logged cases. It'd make sense to outsource it as I assume the people employed there aren't capable of resolving technical queries.

Telkom has PLENTY of call centres, based all over the country and performing different functions.

About two years ago Telkom were forced to convert the contract employees who met a certain criteria to full time employees. There were still contract employees who mainly did relief work (not all).

Roll on...

Telkom decided to terminated ALL contract workers by the end of this month. This is not limited to call centres - it is across the board.

At the same time Telkom is busy outsourcing the call centres via a Section 197 process, to be completed by the end of April 2015. S197 does NOT mean retrenchment. The call centres and the employees are transferred to the new company.

And this is where the unions must come in and negotiate... For example, is there a guaranteed retention period of all staff transferred? Salary? Benefits? etc...

The latest development is that some employees affected by this S197 process requested the option of voluntary severance packages. This is the same package offered previously. Telkom were in agreement but one of the three recognised unions (CWU) refused the offer so it was withdrawn.

Over the weekend things got ugly with wildcat strikes, etc.

 

[MickZA]

Telkom has PLENTY of call centres, based all over the country and performing different functions.

About two years ago Telkom were forced to convert the contract employees who met a certain criteria to full time employees.

I'm in the fortunate position of dealing with the pinnacle call centre (transferred automatically when phoning 10210 from my land line) I assume this is manned by full time employees as calls are usually answered promptly and non-technical assistance is good?