Trade union Solidarity warned on Wednesday that ongoing restructuring and retrenchments in the information and communication technology (ICT) industry continued to put employees in the sector under “immense” pressure.

This as the union claimed it had received “confidential information” that network provider Cell C was planning to continue with further retrenchments in addition to those that had already been announced.

South Africa’s third-largest mobile operator confirmed last week that up to 190 jobs could be threatened as it started consultations on possible retrenchments owing to the restructuring of “certain areas” within the 1 458-employee-strong company.

Telecommunications group Telkom has meanwhile remained defensive with regard to a turnaround strategy and restructuring plan that would result in extensive job losses, saying that it had been informed by “a number of complex and demanding” considerations.

According to Solidarity, 1 000 Telkom employees had been affected by the process, of which 676 employees had already been placed in alternative positions and 302 had accepted voluntary severance packages.

The company was in the process of placing 104 employees in alternative positions.

In addition, industry rival MTN planned to shed about 847 managerial staff by the end of October, owing to weak earnings and growth, Engineering News Online reported in August.

Two hundred MTN employees had already accepted voluntary severance packages, while placements in alternative positions were ongoing.

Solidarity communications sector head of industry Marius Croucamp expressed concern over the “aggressive and continued” retrenchments experienced in the industry over the past year.

“There have been far more retrenchments this year than in previous years. Certain companies are retrenching people on a large scale, while only a few companies, such as Vodacom, have not yet announced any large-scale retrenchments,” he said.

Croucamp further warned that employees that remained in the industry were experiencing increased pressure at work as they had to take over the tasks of their colleagues that had been retrenched.

“We are currently seeing a pattern in the industry where retrenchments lead to overburdened employees and reduced production, which, in turn, may lead to further retrenchments. We will, therefore, urge employers during consultations [to take into consideration] that the welfare of its workforce should be the industry’s first priority,” he said.

The trade union attributed the recent surge in planned job cuts in the industry to pressure on the South African economy, which gave rise to sharply increased input costs.

In addition, the cost of implementing new technologies, on which the industry’s survival fundamentally depended had become “unaffordable”.