Contact Us
Solidarity,Telkom wage talks stall
Facebook
Reddit
Print 
PDF 
Trade union, Solidarity, has declared a wage dispute with Telkom – saying that wage negotiations had reached a stalemate after three rounds.
In a statement released by the union, it says that Telkom’s decision to impose a two year moratorium on retrenchments, provided that trade unions will accept a wage increase of only 4,5%, amounts to “extortion”.
According to Marius Croucamp, spokesperson of Solidarity, there is room in Telkom’s salary budget since the company did away with 1 877 employees at the beginning of the year by means of voluntary severance packages.
The union claims that this brought about a saving of 9,2% on its salary budget. The trade union maintains that Telkom not only has room in its salary budget for a wage increase of between 8% - 10%, but that it should also compensate its remaining personnel for their scarce skills.
“Almost 9% of Telkom’s total labour force accepted voluntary severance packages. Of the 1 877 employees who took voluntary severance packages, 1 650 already vacated their positions in March. The rest left at the end of April,” Croucamp said.
He adds that Telkom has realised that it has now come up against a substantial skills shortage and several of those who already vacated their positions, were lured back with temporary contracts to transfer their skills to the remaining personnel.
“Telkom’s ultimatum causes a lot of insecurity and tension among Telkom personnel. The employees now face a decision between job security and a liveable salary. Moreover, Telkom cannot afford to lose one more skilled employee,” Croucamp said.
During the first round of wage negotiations Solidarity demanded that Telkom should, in addition to an across the board two year wage increase, also retrospectively from 1 April impose a two year moratorium on retrenchments.
According to Solidarity, Telkom currently offers a wage increase of 4,5% while Solidarity demands a wage increase of 10%. Issues such as standby allowances, telephone allowances, leave and payments for long-term service also form part of this year’s wage negotiations.
