Telkom to retrench 4000 workers

“Employees’ contracts expire in March and April 2010, but contracts have ended abruptly,” said Solidarity’s spokeman Jaco Kleynhans in a statement.

The trade union has urged Telkom to halt the unfair retrenchment of the temporary and contract workers.

“Telkom failed to follow the correct process of retrenchment as contained in the Labour Relations Act.

“Although, by right, a complete Section 189 retrenchment process, including a consultation process with the relevant trade unions, should have been followed, Telkom did not follow this procedure at all.

“Employees were simply informed that the termination of their services would be brought forward, with the process now being carried through,” said Kleynhans.

Solidarity on Thursday attended a consultation meeting with other trade unions at Telkom’s head office.

“The process is still extremely unfair,” he said.

Telkom’s spokeman Pynee Chetty said the company was resolving the matter and would continue to engage organised labour.

“Telkom is confident that a favourable resolution will be reached.”

Solidarity meanwhile claimed that the retrenchments could possibly be the company’s first drastic step in cutting staff costs.

“With the release of its annual report earlier this week, the company made it clear that an ‘aggressive’ programme for reducing labour capitalisation would have to be followed in order to cut Telkom’s expenses,” said Kleynhans.

Telkom staff cuts – discussion