Telkom strike set to disrupt services

Perhaps this is why Telkom has started upgrading their Exchanges in a bid to allow Self-Installation for ADSL? Who needs slow-working / striking employees when you can get you customers to do some of the work themselves? If only all the Exchanges were upgraded for this - my family had to call Telkom two days ago only to find that without their knowledge their ADSL installation date moved back another month :( JHB must really have a lot of orders in backlog. Now Alberton, man 4 weeks and the job gets done :confused:

In all fairness, I must advise that for the last 3 or 4 months, I've seen a larger Telkom presence on the roads to and from work - a lot more than I ever recall seeing before! Whether this is due to increased maintenance efforts (things breaking and reaching a critical level) or to increased demand for new services (I recall Telkom announcing something like 4000 new orders per week) - I cannot say. To top it off, I've only once seen a Telkom technician standing by an open junction box whilst reading the morning newspaper :o

Telkom can sure do without this strike. Logically, if you have more orders than you can timeously process (hence the long delays of two or more months for most installations of ADSL) then you'd want to keep your employees happy and motivated and remain operational. Heck, get more people onto the job and cut-back on the backlog ...
 
The Telkom employees are treated like crap a great deal of the time, and their meagre bonuses is evidence of that.

Sizwe's bonus in 2004 was R8 million - other people got less than R3,000 and did 100 times as much work.
 
8 mil thats more than most telkom employees will earn in a lifetime...i agree the employees are getting a raw deal
 
feo said:
8 mil thats more than most telkom employees will earn in a lifetime...i agree the employees are getting a raw deal
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8 mil is probably a hefty portion of the total salary (excluding CEO).

R8 000 000 / R3000 = 2700 or so employees - how many employees do Telkom have left?
 
Moederloos said:
how many employees do Telkom have left?
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Around 28,000, give or take.

That 8 million bonus alone could keep 133 people employed for one year at R5,000 each per month.
 
Sad thing will be that we will bear the brunt of the strike as Telkom WILL increase its prices in certain areas that will impact us most. They are still going to give the head cheeses their large salary and then make money through us for the pay increases for the lower income personel.
 
martmeister said:
Sad thing will be that we will bear the brunt of the strike as Telkom WILL increase its prices in certain areas that will impact us most. They are still going to give the head cheeses their large salary and then make money through us for the pay increases for the lower income personel.
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No, they'll just fire a few more employees :)
 
martmeister said:
Sad thing will be that we will bear the brunt of the strike as Telkom WILL increase its prices in certain areas that will impact us most.
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How can they increase prices if they just announced there were going to be reductions.
On the subject of employees I have heard that they have more than other phone companies. If they actually paid them what they should they would start working and guess what, no more backlog.
 
Well, I cannot comment on Telkom employees and their working experiences because I'm not a Telkom Employee. I'm a person that believes a job is what you make of it. If you have a crappy attitude you will probably end up getting a crappy salary at the end of the month. For example: I was supposed to be visited by a Telkom Techy today at 14:00 for my ADSL to be installed. He never pitched up. Not even a phonecall to state that he won't be able to make it.

Now, can you please explain to me how a person that does nothing, and who obviously does not care about his job, can he seriously expect a R20,000 bonus? I can't see how one can justify that.

My salary is very poor as well and if it wasn't for the fact that I still live with my dad, I'd probably be out on the streets. But I know for a fact that I work hard and I really try to earn my salary, and thus far, it's worked for me.

I don't know. This is a very sensitive subject. I know there are thousands of hard working people out there that get shafted every month even if they are the best employees they can be, and that's unfair I agree. But what about old "vusi" or "george" that did NOTHING for a whole year and who didn't care about their job to start with? Are they also entitled to the same R20,000 bonus?

In my line of work, my bonus is based on my whole department's performance. And let's face it, Telkom's service levels are NOT up to scratch, and until that isn't fixed, I don't see how they can expect decent bonusses and salaries. That's just the way life works.

Remember, according to labour law: NO company is obligated to give an employee a bonus. It is up to the discression of the company to award you a bonus, and they determine the amount.

The only thing a company (employer) is by law required to give you, is an annual increase. And we ALL know how much that is. 5% if you're lucky.

So with all that in mind - I think the strike is utter BS and they're solving nothing.
 
I don't care about the bonus part. I just know that if someone pays crap, they can expect crap in return, gigo (This is aimed directly at you Telkom!)
 
That's my point. The problem is even IF telkom gives them all a 10% increase in salary it's NOT going to change their employees attitudes. Fine...fire them and the next time you hire someone make sure you give him/her a decent salary. The mindset is already in place, a salary increase is NOT going to solve an attitude problem. Trust me.
 
Mr Anderson said:
... even IF telkom gives them all a 10% increase in salary it's NOT going to change their employees attitudes.
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10% is a lot, we are only getting 6%, subtract inflation @ 4.4%, and I only get an effective increase of 1.6% :eek:
 
Wouldn't the idea of standing up to your employeer mean something for moral? I mean, from all accounts, and what I see, these techs are working around the clock. Who would really want that? I see telkom trucks at all hours.

The dude that installed my ADSL was great, phone calls and all. So some guys do work hard, they just know they are in a dead end position.
 
How can they increase prices if they just announced there were going to be reductions.
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Easy. Same way Telkom always "reduced" prices. For example :

Reduce International Call Cost by 5% .
Increase Local Call Cost by 10% .

..and then telkom's calculations will show a "total-average" reduction of 1% , which they'll glorify as "below inflation and absolutely amazing!" .
 
Something is rotten when the Telkom executives have such extravagant packages while its employees are paid a pittance. Perhaps it would be acceptable if they had actually done something to earn them but they have made their massive profits by abusing their monopoly to gouge the consumer.
 
LifelongGamer said:
In all fairness, I must advise that for the last 3 or 4 months, I've seen a larger Telkom presence on the roads to and from work - a lot more than I ever recall seeing before! Whether this is due to increased maintenance efforts (things breaking and reaching a critical level) or to increased demand for new services (I recall Telkom announcing something like 4000 new orders per week) - I cannot say. To top it off, I've only once seen a Telkom technician standing by an open junction box whilst reading the morning newspaper :o
...
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Well how long do you have ADSL or is active on this forum. Is it not more a case that you are more aware as opposed to see more activity unless there are Telkom expansion where you move or travel. Telkom employee count dropped in real effect. Also I have seen many a Telkom operation where one guy sits in the manhole and two or three supervise?
 
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