An independent facilitator is preparing to sit down with Telkom and trade unions on Monday to consult on the telecommunication giant’s restructuring and retrenchment process.

Telkom this week agreed to further consultation to “ensure all stakeholder views are considered and factored [in]” as the group moved to trim its labour pool, particularly that of management.

“This consultation is a continuation of the dialogue that the company has had with staff and organised labour over the past few months regarding its restructuring,” Telkom said in a statement.

This came amid allegations of excessive job cuts and race-based retrenchments by trade unions, the South African Communication Union (Sacu) and Solidarity.

Sacu last week announced its intention of taking Telkom to court, believing the telecommunications giant planned to retrench about 9 500 of its 19 000 employees over the next six months.

Solidarity on Friday said Telkom had signed an agreement to suspend all planned selections, appointments and retrenchments, with new criteria for the restructuring process set to be tabled and considered during the consultation process managed by the appointed external facilitator.

Solidarity, which previously moved to halt the retrenchment process in court, believed that about 345 managers would be retrenched through a race-based process.

The union, which also launched an extensive public campaign against the process, stated that Telkom would have to retrench more than 5 000 white employees from the company to achieve the race targets of its employment equity plan.

“The agreement sends a signal to employers all over South Africa that Solidarity will not tolerate race-based layoffs. We will not let our members be traded in for black economic-empowerment points.

“We also insist that restructuring processes take place in consultation with employees and be accompanied by a well-designed business strategy,” Solidarity head of industry for the telecommunications sector Marius Croucamp stated.

The agreement would be made an order of the court next week.