Restructuring not new to Telkom, says report

POLOKWANE – IT is still not yet clear how many Telkom employees in Polokwane are going to be affected following Telkom’s announcement earlier this year about restructuring the company.

The restructuring process will affect Telkom’s call centres, printing operations and IT management, some of which will be outsourced in the future. Telkom’s properties will also be reviewed and 20 of the 95 Telkom Direct outlets will be closed as they are not deemed to be viable any more.

Polokwane has two Telkom stores in the city. According to Mack Mamorobele, Communication Workers Union (CWU) secretary in the province, only one of these stores would still be operational after the restructuring process had been completed. “It is expected that the Telkom Direct shop at Savannah Mall will be closed,” he said. “The deadline for the closure has been extended, possibly till the end of this month, after it was initially extended to the end of April.”

He said discussions around retrenchments, voluntary packages and relocations to other possible available jobs had not been finalised yet.

“This is why it is not yet possible to say how many people will be affected and in what way. Only after processes have been finalised will it be possible to say. We don’t know yet how many people will be placed in outsourced jobs or other vacancies within the company, which have to be identified, or how many workers will take voluntary retrenchment packages.”

Telkom’s communication and public relations managing executive, Jacqui O’ Sullivan, earlier this year said the restructuring was imperative for the survival of the business and the sustainable growth of the company.

Statistics showed that in 2010 Telkom had 23 247 employees, in 2014 19 197 and as of January 31, 18 384 employees countrywide. In November last year Telkom announced it had put aside R234 million after tax for retrenchment.

“The employees affected have been notified of the decision to restructure and, in terms of the Labour Relations Act, have been issued with Section 189 notices. Telkom will explore every option to place the affected employees impacted by this process in other areas of the business. Should such attempts be unsuccessful, some of the affected employees may unfortunately be retrenched,” she said at the time.

A formal consultation process with labour unions had already started in February with regard to the affected Telkom stores. Talks with the CWU deadlocked in March and marches against retrenchments and a go-slow ensued. CWU threatened to strike.

The parties are negotiating again now, but the process is not yet finalised a month after it was supposed to.