Photo by: Duane Daws
There are sufficient alternatives for the workers impacted by telecommunications giant Telkom’s restructuring programme, trade union Solidarity said on Thursday, vowing to continue its fight against the retrenchments.
Solidarity communication industry leader Marius Croucamp on Thursday said in a statement that further discussions with Telkom were held this week regarding alternatives to retrenchments as the JSE-listed group moved to shut around 20 of its 95 Telkom Direct stores.
“We have urged Telkom to consider these alternatives before taking definite action in the form of a forced retrenchment process,” he added.
Telkom had agreed to discuss several alternatives, including the offering of voluntary severance packages (VSPs) and placing employees in vacant positions, the latter of which would be mulled by an appointed task team.
Solidarity also called for a task team to be formed to deal with the closure of the Telkom Direct stores, as well as to table proposals for the prevention of future job losses at the company.
Croucamp noted that the company’s Section 197 transfers had been finalised, impacting 1 170 employees, of which 724 accepted VSPs and 446 were transferred to the companies tasked by Telkom to take over certain outsourced business functions.
“Their terms and conditions of employment will remain unchanged,” Croucamp concluded.