Photo by: Bloomberg
Trade union Solidarity met with troubled State-owned enterprise Telkom Group CEO Sipho Maseko on Thursday to discuss the company’s future plans regarding its restructuring process.
This followed after Telkom initially said the meeting with Maseko would only take place on condition that unions agreed to the extension of voluntary severance packages to unionised members.
“Solidarity indicated that it first needed to discuss the terms of the packages with Telkom, after which Telkom suspended the meeting with Maseko. However, Telkom later withdrew the precondition,” Solidarity communications industry head Marius Croucamp said.
The Labour Court earlier this month ordered Telkom to halt its restructuring and retrenchment plans, which would have affected nearly 8 000 employees, until it could reach a settlement with trade unions regarding the plans.
This prompted Telkom to abandon its Section 189 process in favour of offering voluntary retrenchment packages to nonunion members and the implementation of restructured working terms to continue its cost containment programme.