Telkom staff intensify action

By Nicola Mawson for Telkom

Johannesburg, 03 Aug 2009

Workers at telecommunications company Telkom have speeded up their planned protests in a bid to get the operator to narrow the wage gap, says the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Secretary-general Gallant Robert says about 6 000 of the union's 9 000 members who work at Telkom will stay away from work and picket. He says the strike will affect Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

Robert expects fixed-line communications to be affected in the four provinces. “Members in those provinces will be embarking on a complete stay away... There will be a major impact in those four provinces.”

CWU, which has a recognition agreement with Telkom, represents about 40% of the company's staff. Both parties met at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration this morning to settle the year-long dispute.

Pressure cooker

Robert says the issue is that Telkom must narrow the wage gap by moving lower paid staff onto higher scales before implementing a 7.5% wage increase.

Should the conciliation fail, the union will go back to its members to find other ways of putting pressure on the telecommunications company.

Meshack Dlamini, Telkom's executive for employee relations, says it intends to continue its engagement with organised labour. “The company is still involved in discussions with organised labour and these talks continue today as well.”

Initially, members were expected to picket from last Thursday until next Monday. This was then to be followed with national marches and then a full-blown stay-away.

However, Robert says “they could not wait any longer to put pressure on the company”.

Disruptions

Frost & Sullivan senior ICT industry analyst Lindsey Mc Donald says Telkom services are likely to be interrupted over the next two days as the company's workers stay away. “If a line goes down, it's not likely to get repaired as quickly as usual.”

She says the “strike season” has led to high wage settlements, with agreements so far being between about 9% and 13%. This has led to optimism among striking workers that offers will be high, she notes.

However, no strike is expected to go on for more than a few days as employers are following a hard line and not paying staff members that are not working. Mc Donald says workers cannot afford to strike for long.