Consultation with trade unions, whose members are affected by the restructuring and retrenchments announced late last week by Telkom, could prove to be an uphill battle for the telecommunications provider. Parties will enter into a CCMA-facilitated consultation process beginning next week focused on the pending Labour Relations Act Section 189 process which puts 300 jobs at risk.

Solidarity Deputy General Secretary Marius Croucamp told ITWeb Africa that they are looking to save each one of the 300 jobs during the negotiations because Telkom is not in a position to reduce its labour force.

"We are going to engage with Telkom and look at whether it is necessary and whether there are other alternatives. It is critical for Solidarity to save jobs. The average worker at Telkom, because of the continuous restructuring, is a terrified worker ... they really fear for their work on a day-to-day basis. It is very important to try and stabilise things by bringing an end to the insecurity of work."

Croucamp says the unbundling of Telkom is proving to be too radical and has affected service levels.

"There is a lot of dissatisfaction in the public domain about Telkom's services to such an extent that in December they approached the unions and got us into a collective agreement to rely on members to work overtime because they don't have enough technical staff. It is quite clear they have retrenched too many people at this point in time in that division, and that makes it difficult for them to deliver services. It is short term gain and long term pain for Telkom if they continue like this."

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has also expressed its opposition to the looming job cuts and called on the South African government to intervene.

"We call on government to intervene and put a stop to these unilateral retrenchments, that have been taking place at Telkom for the last ten years. Telkom has already proved that they are not dealing with stakeholders, especially unions, in good faith by proceeding with the announcement despite not properly engaging with stakeholders, including our affiliate Communication Workers Union."

Jacqui O'Sullivan, Managing Executive of Group Communication at Telkom indicated that last week Thursday they had informed unions of the company's intention to pursue a Section 189 process that may lead to 300 people losing their jobs within its corporate centre.

O'Sullivan emphasised that they would ensure that 260 more jobs are outsourced as part of a multi-year turnaround strategy at the telecommunications services provider.

Prospects of an agreement

Labour lawyer Ivan Israelstam says the job of the CCMA facilitator will be to assist all parties with the aim of avoiding or reducing the retrenchments.

"Regardless of the legal timelines, when there is a union involved the consultation process takes a long time. It's seldom that it is quick because unions have got a lot of issues that they need to raise - especially when a lot of members are affected."

Israelstam says the CCMA official can be relied upon to assess all alternatives to retrenchments. "You might not be able to save all the jobs, but if the parties are really keen to try and avoid job losses, a lot can be done. It will depend on the attitude of the parties."