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More employees accept Telkom packages

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 06 Apr 2016
Telkom's workforce has shrunk from 23 245 to 13 895 in the past 10 years.
Telkom's workforce has shrunk from 23 245 to 13 895 in the past 10 years.

Some 1 189 employees have left Telkom, either by accepting the company's voluntary severance packages or early retirement packages.

Telkom's managing executive for group communication, Jacqui O'Sullivan, confirmed to ITWeb this morning that the application for Telkom's voluntary severance packages and voluntary early retirement packages closed on Thursday last week.

"The package offers were made in response to the many requests received from our employees, and the desire for our people to be given a final opportunity to review their future within the business," she said.

According to O'Sullivan, a total of 1 629 applications were received for the packages and the company approved 73% of those applications, allowing for 1 189 people to exit Telkom.

Over the past two years, Telkom has been involved in a turnaround strategy which has seen some employees either being retrenched, transferred to outsourcing companies, or being given voluntary severance packages as well as early retirement packages.

However, trade union Solidarity says Telkom's rash approval of voluntary severance packages and early retirement packages will lead to a massive skills shortage in the company.

According to Marius Croucamp, deputy general secretary of the communication industry at Solidarity, it is clear Telkom is in a hurry to get rid of a large number of employees.

"We maintain that Telkom is abusing the fact that its employees are currently vulnerable and feeling uncertain about their future at the company. The result will be the loss of thousands of highly skilled employees with years of experience in the industry. In addition, the company's service delivery levels will suffer," Croucamp says.

Telkom's workforce has shrunk from 23 245 to 13 895 in the past 10 years, says Solidarity.

O'Sullivan, on the other hand, allays the skills shortage worries, saying: "Telkom reviewed all applications with the intention of retaining essential skills wherever necessary.

"We continue to engage with organised labour on the current Section 197 [business transfer] process. We also continue in our efforts for the CCMA facilitated consultation sessions with organised labour on the Section 189 [retrenchment] process," she notes.

ICT industry veteran Adrian Schofield says: "What we are seeing at Telkom is the fundamental problem for managers of ICT companies facing the pressures of changing work processes in a competitive sector within a shrinking economy."

He explains that from the heady days of a monopoly copper-wire based state-owned enterprise providing guaranteed employment for tens of thousands of privileged people, Telkom now has to satisfy the demands of its shareholders for a return on investment as a listed company while transforming its workforce into a productive resource using very different technologies.

"Of course, Solidarity will argue that the voluntary retrenchment process removes essential skills and experience from the ranks - and this is true, to a degree. It always has been."

Schofield believes many of those accepting the retrenchment terms will find opportunities in other companies, in other sectors or in self-employment.

"Many will find their 'package' does not support the same lifestyle as being in full-time employment. Telkom will need to step up its training initiatives to ensure they replace the skills lost through this process.

"I doubt the loss of skills will be felt in any significant way by Telkom's customers - every service provider has customers who complain about service levels but most of them accept the intermittent failures as part of life."

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