Johannesburg – Two unions representing some of Telkom SA’s workers said on Tuesday they would take the South African landline provider to court over possible job losses.
Telkom said it planned to slash jobs from a management layer that had 2 650 posts but that it had not yet decided how much of that number it would eventually cut in an effort to slash costs and regain market share.
The South Africa Communications Union (Sacu) said however it believed Telkom intended to let go of about 9 000 of its 19 000 employees over the next six months.
“We are drawing up the papers so that we can refer the matter. We intend going to court on the issue of the company not consulting with us,” said Sacu general secretary Karriem Abraham.
Separately, the Solidarity union, which represents mainly white workers, said it would file a court petition on Tuesday to prevent the company from sacking its members based on race, claiming Telkom might use it as a criterion.
“It is not lawful that you take that approach,” said Johan Kruger, deputy general secretary at Solidarity. “Race should be irrelevant when it comes to retrenching people.”…
South Africa Today – South Africa News
