Telkom's IT division is facing an uncertain future, as the company admits plans are under way to “optimise” the business.
Trade union Solidarity says Telkom plans to phase out the IT division by as soon as October. The trade union has slammed the operator, saying it was not consulted and its members need to be protected.
However, Telkom says all organised labour has been consulted and advised of the possibility of an outsourced IT division.
“A list of business optimisation initiatives was tabled for discussion. In particular, there was extensive engagement around the possibility of business optimisation in the company's IT operations. There was principled support from organised labour for this, subject to further investigations being completed and certain protocols being complied with,” the company explains.
The operator says there was also an undertaking that once these processes were concluded, it would come back to the unions with a proposal for further discussion.
At last year's results presentation, in November, CEO Reuben September revealed Telkom has R2 billion worth of IT equipment, which has been migrated to its new data centre and will be run as an outsourced project.
The first parts of the systems moved were supposed to relate to Telkom's planned mobile business, and the rest was expected to follow later. It is unclear how far Telkom has come with the migration.
Last year, Telkom began an outsourcing initiative, dubbed the "capability management project", which was criticised by the unions, with Solidarity still seeming unhappy with the idea.
“At this stage, Telkom's objectives with the planned phasing out of the IT division are unclear. Telkom probably intends to transfer the division to an external service provider who will perform all the necessary functions, which was also the purpose of capability management a few years ago. Telkom plans to concentrate on its core business only and to phase out additional functions such as IT,” says Solidarity spokesman Jaco Kleynhans.
Solidarity has issued a letter to Telkom, demanding that an urgent meeting be held to discuss the plan. The union also demands in the letter that Telkom discontinue the entire phasing-out process, until after consultations between the parties have taken place.
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