After months-long negotiations and disagreements surrounding the future remuneration of its bargaining unit employees, telecommunications group Telkom and trade union the Communications Workers Union (CWU), on Thursday inked a three-year wage agreement.

CEO Sipho Maseko said trade unions the South African Communications Union (Sacu) and Solidarity had indicated that they would follow suit in due course, after concluding consultations with their members.

The wage agreement was effective April 1, 2013, when the previous wage period ended, and extended until March 31, 2016.

The wage deal would eliminate uncertainties over labour costs for the next three years, while dealing with salary disparities through an “equal pay for work of equal economic value” principle.

The lead negotiator for Telkom, group executive for employee relations Meshack Dlamini added that, in moving towards equitable remuneration, about 1 700 employees would not receive direct wage adjustments, but would receive a monthly pensionable one-off amount, while the remaining 16 800 workers would directly receive wage adjustments.

The multiyear agreement outlined that a 6% general salary hike would be applied to the market’s fiftieth percentile as per employee functional area, while employees below the fiftieth percentile would receive an additional amount added to their total package.

The standby allowance was boosted by 6%.

While the agreement was not “perfect”, CWU president Cecil Mokhantso indicated that it was a positive base to start from.

Defending the speculation over the turbulent wage dispute, particularly issues surrounding the remuneration restructuring, Maseko said that, considering Telkom’s financial position and the current economic climate, any wage negotiations were bound to be difficult.

However, he commended the unions’ commitment to finding a resolution.

The embattled group believed that, while this deal would ease some of the pressure on its financial position, a “huge” improvement in productivity levels was required to offset the 6.8% a year increase in wage levels.

Maseko said the group was determined to return to its “glorious past” and was gaining momentum with mitigating operational and other cost issues.

“We will promise less and deliver more – that’s how we will play this,” he averred, indicating that, over the next few months, the company would keep stakeholders updated on the numerous milestones reached.

Meanwhile, new Communications Minister Yunus Carrim on Thursday said he wanted to create a more enabling environment for the stakeholders to work together.

Carrim’s predecessor Dina Pule came under fire last year after alleged meddling in Telkom and speculation that a clash between government and Telkom had led to a mass exodus of directors.

Democratic Alliance shadow Communications Minister Marian Shinn had slammed Pule for her “amateurish and reckless” meddling in the affairs of a listed company, adding that it could have jeopardised the legality of Telkom’s operations and set the group on “a path to bankruptcy”.

“While we respect the fact that Telkom is a listed company, as a majority shareholder, it is important that we engage the executive leadership of the company from time to time around its strategy going forward and its turnaround,” Carrim said during a meet and greet with the group’s executives on Thursday.

The meeting also served as a platform to strengthen relations between the majority shareholder and Telkom, as well as to explore ways in which Telkom could contribute to government's ambitions of reducing the cost to communicate.

Carrim added that it was up to Telkom, which remained a major strategic asset for South Africa, to balance the interests of all shareholders.