As part of its ongoing turnaround strategy South African telecommunications services provider Telkom has identified external companies to undertake key areas of its operation, including call centre operations, the management of IT legacy systems, the management of Telkom warehouses in the Supply Chain area of the business, as well as internal printing activities.

Telkom today announced what it termed 'the next steps to unlock further cost efficiencies" in four areas of business : Telkom Direct Stores, Call Centres, IT Legacy Systems and internal printing and Supply Chain and Properties.

In a statement the Company said, "When Telkom initially embarked on its turnaround strategy, the Company stated that it would look at alternatives, such as joint ventures, to ensure that job losses would be avoided and only used as a very final course of action.

A Section 197 process has been initiated for staff impacted in these areas of the business. These affected employees will be transferred to their new employers in the coming months."

This will be a consultative process stated the telecommunications company, with the official consultations set to begin on Friday and continue over the coming weeks.

Affected employees from the closure of some of the Company's 95 Telkom Direct Stores have been notified of the decision and, in terms of the Labour Relations Act, have been issued with Section 189 Notices.

"Telkom will explore every option to place the affected employees impacted by this process in other areas of the business. Should such attempts be unsuccessful, some of the affected employees may unfortunately be retrenched," the Company stated.

At the same time Telkom refuted suggestions contained within a statement issued by Organised Labour union Solidarity which is said to have claimed Telkom would be restructuring the "Field Force" impacting up to 10 000 people.

"This is not a correct reflection of the day's discussions," stated Telkom.. "Today's meeting, which will be followed with the initiation of the formal consultation process, pertains only to the call centre, IT legacy systems, supply chain warehousing and the affected Telkom stores. The Telkom Field Force is currently not part of the discussions with Organised Labour."