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Johannesburg - Trade union Solidarity says telecoms company Telkom plans to shed 7 800 jobs within two months.
The union says Telkom plans to cut 4 400 jobs through voluntary severance packages and voluntary early retirement packages.
Solidarity further says that another 3 400 permanent employees contract workers will be transferred to other companies.
In April, Fin24 reported that a total of 1 169 employees at Telkom have been affected by the telecom company’s outsourcing measures. Telkom at the time also told Fin24 that of these 1 169 employees, 728 accepted voluntary severance packages while, 441 have been transferred to other companies.
The job cuts form part of Telkom’s restructuring process which includes the company implementing "cost efficiencies" in its Direct Stores as well as its call centres, IT Legacy Systems and internal printing, supply chain and properties.
“In February this year, Solidarity warned that major job cuts were looming,” said Marius Croucamp, head of Solidarity’s communications industry, in a statement.
“We have been pressurising Telkom since the beginning of this year to come clean regarding the number of people that will be affected and we are still questioning whether this drastic action will put the company on a sustainable path,” he said.
Subsequently, the union is wanting more answers on the job cuts.
“If Telkom carries on in this vein, an empty shell is all that will remain of the company, and the inadequate service delivery that we are already experiencing will worsen as it will actually be the skilled employees that will be deterred by this major uncertainty,” said Solidarity.
Telkom separating its business functions
Telkom did not respond at the time of writing to Fin24’s questions regarding Solidarity’s statement about the telecom company’s planned job cuts.
However, Telkom chief executive officer Sipho Maseko did tell Fin24 on Monday that the company planned to hold high level talks with unions on Tuesday.
On Monday, Maseko also told Fin24 that Telkom is set to undergo the second stage in its turnaround phase which will include splitting the company’s business functions into three - retail, enterprise and wholesale.
"One of the reasons why we are separating these businesses into three is because we have a core hypothesis that the parts are more valuable than the sum,” Maseko told Fin24.
"Each of these businesses need to be geared to meet different customer needs,” Maseko said.
This splitting of these business function is expected to take several months and years and it is unclear as to how it could impact on Telkom’s operations moving forward.
Official Telkom documents seen by Fin24 earlier this year indicated that Telkom on January 31 2015 employed approximately 18 384 employees.
