Telkom retrenchments under fire
Eyewitness News today reported that the Communication Worker Union (CWU) has urged telecommunications operator Telkom not to retrench over 3 000 temporary workers by the end of 2009.
“It says Telkom should rethink its plans as many of the employees have been with the company for a number of years,” EWN reports. “The casual labourers have only two more weeks before their retrenchment.”
Telkom previously said that it “employs just over 4000 temporary staff who have been acquired through service providers (labour brokers) to deal specifically with variations in our need for human resources due to cyclical business circumstances. As part of the Company’s business optimisation process, our reviews indicate a need to reduce temporary staff in certain business areas based on current and future business requirements.”
Telkom added that it is not directly terminating the employees of the labour brokers but is reducing the levels of service provided by these suppliers. “The process of reviewing the services rendered by third party suppliers will continue as the Company endeavours to drive down costs in our business operations and processes,” Telkom said.
“The temporary reduction programme is aimed at reducing the number of temporary employees and not full-time employees. Therefore, as stated above, the process does not have any impact on the agreed moratorium on the forceful retrenchment of full-time employees.”
Telkom said that as per their agreement with CWU, the company has agreed to defer the termination of temporary employees until 31 December 2009.
Telkom retrenchments – discussion
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