Trade Union Solidarity on Thursday sent an urgent letter to telecommunications group Telkom demanding that the company hold off on its planned retrenchment process pending the outcome of the union’s application to the Labour Court, Solidarity deputy general secretary Johan Kruger said.
Following claims by the South African Communications Union (SACU) – which the company said were untrue – that Telkom planned to retrench about 9 000 of its 19 000 employees over the next six months, Solidarity had earlier this week filed a court petition to prevent Telkom from sacking its members based on race, claiming Telkom might use race as a criteria for laying off staff.
Telkom at the time dismissed SACU's claims as speculation and said it was "not targeting specific numbers of” racial groups. The company had, however, said that it planned to cut out some layers of management but had given no target numbers.
Solidarity’s Labour Court petition formed a part of an extensive campaign launched by the union against the current retrenchment process under the name “Racekom”. This campaign also included petitions to Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko.
According to Kruger, Telkom repeatedly made it clear during consultations with trade unions that it would use race as a selection criterion during the retrenchment process.
“Retrenchment is a ‘no fault’ dismissal. In terms of legislation, race may not be used as a criterion during a retrenchment process. Solidarity has, therefore, embarked on an extensive campaign to put a stop to this unfair practice,” Kruger said in a statement.
However, despite public outrage and Solidarity having been forced to approach the Labour Court, Telkom continued to “bury its head in the sand” and was blindly going ahead with the retrenchment process, prompting the union to send this latest letter, Kruger stated.
Despite Telkom denying that race will play a role in the retrenchments, Solidarity persisted in its belief it did, but remained hopeful that the company would come to its senses, the union said.
“There is still time left for Telkom to display real leadership by taking the decision to stop the process and consult with all stakeholders on the many issues that have been raised about the flawed process thus far,” Kruger stated.
Telkom was not able to immediately comment on this issue.