Telkom explains staff cuts

By Paul Vecchiatto, ITWeb Cape Town correspondent

Cape Town, 25 Aug 2004

Telkom has seen staff reductions totalling 25 876 since 2000, to the current level of 35 361, the telecoms utility told Parliament today.

Telkom CEO Sizwe Nxasana told the parliamentary portfolio committee on labour this morning that since October 2002, 54% of the losses were due to natural attrition, 33% were due to voluntary severance, while voluntary early retirement came to 8% and involuntary reductions amounted to 4.3%.

The presentation also detailed "Telkom`s alternative strategies and approaches to avoid/minimise job losses and create new career opportunities".

This morning`s presentation came against the backdrop of the current round of Telkom staff reductions amounting to 4 136 people.

"The strategy is designed to enable Telkom to proactively develop a skills base that is aligned with our business needs, while meeting our commitments as a responsible employer and corporate citizen that can attract the best skills available," said Nxasana.

He said Telkom needed to reduce its headcount by 1 233 positions in 2004, specifically in areas where business demands are shrinking or efficiencies had resulted in an over-supply of skills.

He said: "Where many of our business processes used to be manual, they have since been automated. Where voice services used to be the biggest driver of growth, data services are taking over. Where technical staff once specialised in only one field, they are now multi-skilled. Where South Africans previously relied on landline tech to make calls, they use mobile as well, and will also soon have the option of an SNO [second national operator]."

He reiterated Telkom`s commitment to abide by the Labour Court ruling of 15 August that a CCMA-facilitated consultation process should be concluded before employing the avoidance measure of involuntary packages. The next Telkom consultation with the CCMA is on 13 September.

Nxasana said the Solidarity trade union had "jumped the gun" by calling media conferences before a consultation process on cutbacks had been completed. He accused Solidarity of pushing its membership drive by calling a press conference that made public the positions Telkom aimed to make redundant over the next three years.

"In July, we initially asked the unions to join us in a consultation process because we did not want to create the impression that we were going to ram our decisions down their throats," he said.

Telkom deals with three trade union groupings: the Alliance of Telkom Unions (which includes Solidarity), the SA Communication Workers Union, and the Post and Telecommunications Union.