Johannesburg - Trade union Solidarity said on Thursday that
after “intense consultations” with black-empowered IT company Gijima there would
be no forced retrenchments of its members from the company, BusinessLive
reported.
Solidarity reportedly said this showed it was “possible to
rise above difficult financial times and ultimately to ensure that employees do
not suffer from them”.
In May, Gijima said it planned to retrench some of its more
than 3 000 employees in a bid to save costs and improve efficiency, citing
“dramatic changes” in the information, communications and technology industry.
According to Solidarity, Gijima had by then already
retrenched about 200 employees since December last year and planned to retrench
another 200 by the middle of August, the report said.
Gijima CEO Jonas Bogoshi said in the report that the
company’s had launched its Vision 2025 plan for a new business structure last
year, and the first phase of the plan’s implementation had resulted in “some
role duplication and staff underutilisation”, which the group was trying to
correct.
Zylma Olivier, group human resources manager at Gijima,
confirmed the figures and said while the company was “in the final phases of
the process of consultations” regarding the retrenchments announced earlier in
the year, no further job cuts were planned, the report said.
Gijima returned to profitability in the six months to December last year after reporting losses over the same period in 2010 due to write-offs relating to a settlement with the department of home affairs over a R2.4bn technology tender.
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