The labour court has told Telkom that it must postpone the implementation of voluntary severance and early retirement packages until consultation talks on the rationale to reduce staff numbers have been concluded between the company and its unions.
``Telkom will honour the labour court judgment and remain committed to the consultative process in full compliance with the Labour Relations Act,`` says George Nkadimeng, Telkom`s employee relations executive.
"The organisation will, however, be able to start implementing voluntary severance and early retirement packages from 14 September, whether or not agreement has been reached with organised labour by this date."
This follows legal action, instituted by the SA Communication Union, Solidarity and the Communication Workers Union, against Telkom`s plans to go ahead with the planned retrenchments of about 4 100 workers over the next three years.
The labour court has ordered that Telkom first go through proper consultation with the unions on the rationale to retrench, although it has given the monopoly leave to appeal.
According to Nkadimeng, Telkom maintains that the offer of voluntary severance and early retirement packages is "voluntary" and believes it is entitled to make the offer to affected employees without consultation with organised labour.
"We believe that it is only in circumstances where the company intends to dismiss employees for operational reasons that it needs to comply with the process as envisaged in the Labour Relations Act."
He says consultation talks kicked off on 6 August and that further meetings have been agreed to for 24 August, 4 September and 13 September, which are being facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
Telkom originally claimed that as it continues to review, streamline and refocus its business in response to the changing market in which it operates, it expected the number of fixed-line staff to decrease by between 7% and 10% a year over the next three years.
According to Dirk Hermann, a spokesman for Solidarity, the court ruling is "a victory for workers at Telkom and for fairness".
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