Amid an ongoing wage talk stalemate, Telkom staff members are becoming increasingly irate, two unions are mandating for a strike, and allegations are swirling that Telkom is stopping a union from communicating with its members.
Only the Communication Workers Union (CWU) is happy with the offer that Telkom has put on the table, as it will be in the best interests of its members and sort out a historical issue over wage disparities.
The two other unions - Solidarity and the South African Communications Union (SACU) - are in the process of mandating members for a full-blown strike as months of talks fail to bring the parties closer together.
The core of the issue is that Telkom has offered a 6% a year increase for the next three years, but has asked unions to use this increase in a way that will resolve historical salary discrepancies.
SACU and Solidarity are unhappy as this, they argue, amounts to a wage freeze and that, while the disparity should be resolved, this should not come out of the wage hike budget. The only happy union is CWU, for which nothing has changed, says spokesman Dennis Morobe.
Telkom says talks continue this week. "Telkom values its relationship with all internal and external stakeholders, and particularly places a premium on our relationship with organised labour as they represent the most important constituency of our company, namely, our employees."
CWU represents 38% of Telkom's 20 000-odd workforce, while the other two unions combined have 35%, with SACU being the second-largest body. Some 13 998 of Telkom's bargaining unit employees were unionised as at 30 September 2012.
Down to the wire
Michael Hare, SACU president, says there will be a meeting today in a bid to avert a strike, but the union is balloting members to get a mandate for a full-blown strike. He says it does not seem Telkom is taking the union seriously and a strike may be the "only way" to resolve the impasse.
Members have until Friday to respond to the strike ballot and, if the answer is yes, a full-blown strike will hit next week, says Hare. The situation is now "down to the wire", he says.
Hare does not expect today's talks to lead to a meaningful resolution, but rather to reach some sort of middle ground, from which he hopes an end can be found. SACU has been issued with a strike certificate.
SACU members are losing patience, says Hare, and the workforce is currently tense and angry. As a result of job-security worries, staff are also not being productive, he adds. SACU has 3 900 members at Telkom.
The effective wage freeze, which will see members losing out in terms of wages in real terms, has angered staff, notes Hare. He says the work-to-rule and lunchtime pickets, which went well last week, will be felt more this week. "There's a lot of tension currently in Telkom between the employer and employees."
Grievance
Hare says some workers from different unions have banded together and lodged a grievance and are now taking matters into their own hands. The grievance, apparently submitted by more than 155 staff in the Network Infrastructure Provisioning unit, argues that Telkom has made unilateral changes in job functions without consulting unions.
The document says there is no consistency in applying Telkom's remuneration philosophy in the project office, which it says is key to the network technology rollout. It also cites unfair labour practices and claims remuneration does not always justify the effort.
Telkom does not comment on confidential matters between itself and staff, and has an internal process to deal with such issues.
Going backwards
Hare says while the workers in general are disgruntled, they are still tolerant. However, this will change if Telkom reverts with a "snotty" answer, which will lead to staff being "up in arms".
The total change in remuneration policy during wage negotiations is unprecedented, comments Hare. While members will accept 6%, it is the change to the model that they will not tolerate, he adds. "I've never come across something like this."
Marius Croucamp, Solidarity spokesman, says the offer on the table will result in some people only receiving a once-off bonus for each of the three years, but actual salary increases have been frozen as Telkom says some people are overpaid. "That will get people hot under the collar."
The freeze is a wage cut in real terms, as people will be held to the same level for three years, says Croucamp. In year one, 60% of staff will get a real increase, which drops to 40% and then 30% in the final year, he says. "We're desperate for a solution."
According to Solidarity's Twitter account, it is mandating its members for a strike and, as of Friday, half had reverted and results are expected tomorrow.
Dirty tricks?
Meanwhile, Solidarity has alleged Telkom has blocked communications with its members, which it says set it back "a day or two". However, the alleged e-mail block has been traced to a problem with a computer that required a reboot before mails would flow.
On Friday, the union tweeted: "Telkom wage talks: Telkom playing dirty as Telkom is blocking union's electronic communication to its members."
Telkom says the trade union representatives responsible for sending out Solidarity's communication to employees had experienced technical problems with the PC being used to communicate, which resulted in a lack of mail flow.
When staff members were contacted by technical support - after Telkom was alerted to the issue through media enquiries - they were requested to reboot the PC, which was done at 11.30am on Friday, resulting in the resumption of e-mail services.
Telkom adds that, although the users of the PC were aware of how to obtain support when necessary, no fault request was logged with the IT service desk for assistance, nor was any attempt made to contact either mail system administrators or information security staff to report a potential problem.
A ticket has been opened to establish if the problem was due to software or hardware failure, and if further remedial action is necessary, says Telkom. The telco says there is "no technical or procedural restriction in place that would prevent any union from communicating with its members via any means".
Croucamp says the union uses electronic communications to mandate its members, as this allows for auditing. While cellphone technology is also used, this is a fall-back, as many members need to turn their phones off while at work, he adds.
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