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Johannesburg - Trade union Solidarity is planning to take its fight against the retrenchment of thousands of Telkom workers to the Labour Court.
The union said on Wednesday that it plans to obtain an urgent interdict against a retrenchment process at Telkom.
Last month, Telkom announced that it intends to cut 4 400 jobs through voluntary severance packages or voluntary early retirement packages and that 3 400 employees will be transferred to outsourced companies as part of an enterprise development programme.
Subsequently, the company held talks with unions over the planned job cuts.
However, those talks fell through as unions such as Solidarity alleged that Telkom failed to live up to previous promises on how retrenchments would take place. Unions also cried foul over what they claimed was a lack of consultation.
The unions also declared a dispute, but since then Solidarity has said that Telkom has still issued a Section 189 notice, which deals with retrenchments as per labour law.
“Through the urgent application Solidarity wants to compel Telkom to withdraw the notice and to stop the retrenchment process,” said Solidarity’s deputy head Johan Kruger in a statement.
“We are also applying that the dispute and process first be finalised by means of the restructuring forum. In addition, we are requesting that Telkom discontinue the use of affirmative action as selection criterion during the process,” Kruger said.
Solidarity further said in its statement that Telkom must respond before July 3 to Solidarity’s application which will be heard by the court on July 7.
“Telkom is simply carrying on to steamroller the process without heeding input from trade unions or employees. Although one or two meetings on the restructuring process have been held, those meetings were essentially a superficial attempt from Telkom to share information. Moreover, trade unions weren’t given an opportunity to give input,” Kruger added.
Telkom was not in a position to respond immediately at the time of writing.
However, last month Telkom did respond to allegations from Solidarity that the telecoms company was targeting white employees in its retrenchment process.
Telkom at the time said that its notice issued to the unions in terms of section 189 of the labour relations act proposed that retrenchments take place on a ‘Last in First Out’ and that retrenchments are “subject to the retention of scarce and critical skills and where applicable”.
Telkom also hit out at Solidarity’s allegation that race is a key criteria as part of the job cuts.
“The inflammatory and misleading inference by Solidarity that race is the key selection criterion and that white employees will be targeted, is unequivocally rejected,” said Jacqui O'Sullivan, Telkom’s managing executive for group communication and public relations, in a statement at the time.
“It's regrettable that Solidarity has chosen to play the race card again, in the context of a process that needs to address critical challenges that the company is facing,” O’Sullivan added.
“As with any company, Telkom looks at a number of employment criteria in deciding to bring people into the company or to retain them during times of change. Most importantly, we are a technology company so our people must be equipped with the necessary skills to perform the required body-of-work. They would also be required to have the correct qualifications and training and importantly, the necessary aptitude and attitude to be a part of the Telkom of the future,” said O’Sullivan at the time.
