The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is reportedly going ahead with a strike involving up to 2,000 of its members employed by South African mobile operator MTN Group.

The members, believed to be mostly from MTN's call centre operations, are expected to down tools on Wednesday 20 May 2015.

This follows approval by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), for staff to engage in industrial action in support of their demands. MTN was notified by the union of this week's potential industrial action on 15 May.

MTN is said to be in negotiations with the union regarding several issues, including a review of the current bonus model (guaranteed 13th cheque), return of canteen subsidies, cellphone allowances and introduction of the company's new reward and recognition programme, MTN Shine.

The mobile operator has also refuted "as grossly incorrect" claims by the CWU that it had historically given its staff a 30% bonus.

It has been reported that subscribers could experience delays when dealing with the operator's call, should the industrial action take place.

In a statement MTN said it "regrets and apologises for any inconvenience that may be experienced by our subscribers during this period. Customers are urged to be patient should they experience any delays when trying to reach our call centres. MTN SA will do its best to meet the needs of all our valued customers, as we remain committed to maintaining high levels of service at all times."

Thecla Mbongue, senior research analyst at Ovum told ITWeb Africa that there could be an impact on the network performances if many technical staff were involved, but the expectation was that MTN would take precautions, considering the strike was planned.

"The most affected departments seem to be on the commercial and distribution sides, which would have an impact on customer services at call centre levels," she said.

According to Ovum estimates, MTN daily service revenues (excluding equipment sales) is just over R80 million a day, based on Q1 2015 data.

"In terms of revenues, network usage is crucial and as long as the network is available for customers, there should not be too much damage if the strike only lasts one day," Mbongue added.

MTN executive for group corporate affairs Chris Maroleng has been quoted as saying it is unclear as to how long the industrial action would last.

Speaking to ITWeb Africa Tshepo Matlou, national organiser at the CWU, could not confirm how long the strike would last, saying only that it would continue until the company met demands.

He explained that the union has confirmation from workers of the historic bonus and would negotiate this with MTN based on a rate of 16%.

South African analyst and chief executive officer of Strategy Worx, Steven Ambrose said that in general industrial action is never good for a company and there are often many reasons for any action, but, at the core, this represents a breakdown of relations between MTN and their workers.

"If the strike is not protracted and problematic it should not have a significant effect on operations and consequential impact on customers.

"Avoiding strikes is extremely difficult in the current South African labour environment. There is not much MTN could have done to avoid this one. In future better relations communication could assist in avoiding future issues," Ambrose noted.

He further stated that no company is immune to labour issues and while it may have a short term impact on MTN, other networks may try to capitalise on it to their benefit.

Ambrose does not believe there will be any significant long term impact on MTN's subscriber base for now, and the company is dealing with larger issues regarding SA's competitive mobile market.

* Photo taken by: Dylan Mohlala