Members of two trade unions are set to embark on a five-day strike following a wage dispute with Telkom, company management said on Thursday. <\/p>\n
The strike action by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and the SA Communications Union (Sacu) would start at 7.30am on Friday until 6am on Tuesday, August 5, Telkom said. <\/p>\n
The strike emanated from CWU and SACU’s non-acceptance of Telkom’s final offer of 10.5%. <\/p>\n
The unions were demanding that Telkom increase salaries by 12.5% for the year end March 2009 and 8.7% for the previous year. <\/p>\n
The unions also demand that Telkom increase other contributions such as medical aid. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Solidarity union had accepted the increment on behalf of their members on July 17, which was presented to all unions. <\/p>\n
About 38% of Telkom’s bargaining unit staff (Solidarity members and non-unionised) would receive the 10.5% salary increment. <\/p>\n
Meshack Dlamini, Telkom’s executive for employee relations, said: "Regrettably, our last meeting with CWU and SACU did not yield positive results." <\/p>\n
He said Telkom was aware of the current economic climate. As a result the company had offered a 4.25% increase above the already implemented 6.25%. <\/p>\n
Dlamini said: "For the period of the industrial action, Telkom will have extensive contingency measures in place to ensure that the impact on service delivery is kept to a minimum." <\/p>\n
The Federation of Unions of South Africa earlier welcomed the strike actions by the two unions. <\/p>\n
Fedusa spokesperson Karriem Abrahams said their members were suffering because of the increases in food prices, interest rates and transport costs.<\/p>\n