Telkom retracts wage offer

By Damaria Senne for Telkom
Johannesburg, 28 Mar 2006

Telkom has withdrawn a revised salary offer it presented to workers` unions on Friday.

According to Charlotte Mokoena, Telkom group executive of human resources, Telkom made the offer to three workers` unions on Friday, on condition that threatened strike action did not go ahead.

However, two of the unions, Solidarity and the Communications Workers Association (CWU), yesterday went ahead with a march in protest against the way Telkom manages its profit-sharing scheme. This prompted Telkom to withdraw its offer. Mokoena says Telkom was prepared to give the two unions until 31 March to consider the offer.

Telkom`s revised offer will be implemented for the third union, the South African Communications Union, which accepted Telkom`s initial offer as well as the revised one. The offer will also be implemented for non-unionised members, Mokoena says.

Telkom will wait for feedback from CWU and Solidarity about continued discussions, she says.

'Bad faith`

Dirk Hermann, Solidarity deputy general secretary, says Telkom`s retraction of its revised offer is a sign of "bad faith bargaining".

He argues that the fixed-line operator made its offer late on Friday afternoon knowing that the unions would be unable to take action on it. "There was no way we could reach union members on Friday to gain a mandate for action," he says.

Mfanafuthi Sithebe, head of communications for CWU, says the secretariat for the coalition of the two unions will meet today to put their strike action plans and time lines into operation.

The plans include an international online campaign where communications workers worldwide will be urged to lodge a complaint against Telkom senior executives or selected divisions, he says.

Hermann says the coalition will also lobby government to put pressure on Telkom and seek the assistance of civil society organisations.

"We have a very sophisticated campaign plan that includes more than protest marches," he says.

Strike supported

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has already declared its support for the strike action. Cosatu says it will back whatever action the unions take to ensure their members are properly paid.

In a statement issued today, Cosatu notes that from 1 April 2005 to 30 September 2005, just over R1.3 billion was spent on the salaries of about 2 300 Telkom managers, while R1.8 billion was spent on the salaries of 23 500 workers.

"The unions are absolutely right to demand an 8.5% increase for workers lower than supervisory grades and 7.5% for supervisors and specialists," the statement says.

The Telkom coalition will seek a new mandate from members on Thursday to continue with strike action should activities in the next few days not yield results.

Starting point

Hermann says Telkom`s revised offer was a good starting point for negotiation, but not good enough for settlement. "I don`t think that will be final settlement," he says.

Telkom says extensive contingency plans have been put in place and the potential impact of the industrial action is being closely monitored across the company. Mokoena says while the right to strike is protected, the principle of no work, no pay will apply.