Telkom, unions end wage dispute

By Candice Jones for Telkom

Johannesburg, 11 Aug 2008

Telkom, the Communications Workers Union (CWU) and the SA Communications Union (SACU) have inked a deal that increases wages by a total of 11.5%.

According to SACU spokesman Karriem Abrahams, the deal, signed on Friday, will be executed in two parts. "Telkom will include an increase of 11%, backdating to 1 April, and will then include a second 0.5% increase as of 1 October."

He says the unions are still negotiating on the starting date of the second increase. Telkom has also agreed to convert the days the members were on strike to actual leave days with the company.

Abrahams says the unions have also challenged the numbers released by Telkom to the media concerning the number of employees who participated in the strike. "The company says in the first day it lost 7 000 man-hours, which would mean that 7 000 people were on strike, and yet it said 1 200 members were part of the stay away."

Telkom released a statement last week saying 2 501 employees took part in the planned industrial action. However, Abrahams says the unions counted in excess of 4 000 members. "We have asked for an investigation into this and await Telkom's response."

CWU and SACU have also requested that Telkom not extend this wage increase to non-participating members, which includes members from a third union, Solidarity. "Our members lost money during the process of fighting for this increase, and we don't believe that non-members should be included in this agreement."

Solidarity members signed a 10.5% wage settlement with Telkom in July, which at the time was 0.1% above the inflation rate. However, according to Solidarity spokesman Jaco Kleynhans, Solidarity members will also benefit from the 11.5% increase.

"We have also signed the agreement negotiated by the CWU and SACU," he adds. The agreement signed in July will be null and all Telkom employees will receive the negotiated increase, he says.