Cape Town, 08 Jun 2010
Telkom and trade unions, including Solidarity, are on the verge of reaching a salary agreement for the 1 000 employees in the utility's Data Advance Services division, with hopes for a settlement this week.
A statement issued by Telkom yesterday says it has been in constant engagement with organised labour.
“At a recent company forum (27 May), a joint proposal was agreed to by all parties, but all three labour unions that represent Telkom's bargaining unit staff wanted to 'socialise' the proposals with their members. The engagement process resumed on 2 June. At this meeting, organised labour agreed to the implementation of the joint proposals. A joint task team has commenced with the implementation process,” the statement says.
Both Telkom and the labour unions want the wage issue settled before the release of the company's year-end results, due on 21 June. Telkom needs all its labour issues in place as it begins a new financial year, and focuses its energy on launching its mobile service towards the end of this calendar year.
Solidarity spokesman Jaco Kleynhans says the union hopes its members will iron out a few minor issues over the wage negotiations this week.
“It is nothing serious; it appears to be more about timing of the increases and not about the levels as such.”
If all goes well, Kleynhans adds, the union could meet with Telkom later this week to sign an agreement, although no definite time or date has been set yet.
The other unions involved have not responded to queries from ITWeb.
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