The trade union Solidarity is to ask the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Friday for the dual-listed telecommunication giant Telkom’s consultation process to be public and open to the media.
Solidarity claims that it will be the first time that a retrenchment process in South Africa plays out in public.
The first consultative meeting between Telkom and the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) — comprising Solidarity and the South African Communications Union (Sacu) — is to take place on Friday at CCMA House in Johannesburg under the chairmanship of independent commissioner Afzal Mosam to discuss the company’s plans to retrench more than 4 000 workers within the next three years.
In its motivation for the request, Solidarity said that millions of South Africans use Telkom as a service provider.
“We believe that the retrenchment process could affect every one of them. Telkom is also in the forefront of the privatisation process in South Africa and the public is entitled to information on the full implications of the process.
“We furthermore believe that the public has the right to know how a company that showed a profit of R4,5-billion rand justifies shedding more than 4 000 jobs in a country where the unemployment rate is more than 40%,” said Solidarity spokesperson Dirk Hermann.
Solidarity and Sacu recently announced a plan to avert the Telkom lay-offs.
The plan includes the mobilisation of Telkom employees as well as the public at large, possible court action, the appointment of a commission of enquiry and advancing alternative options for employees.
Trade unions started mobilising employees in Pretoria last week, and Witbank and Centurion had their turn on Thursday.
According to Solidarity more than 3 000 signatures of disgruntled employees have already been collected.
The trade union said it has also concluded an alliance with the website Hellkom.co.za to mobilise public support.
The website has had more than 80 000 visits over the past two weeks and more than 1 000 people have contributed comments on Telkom.
The trade union said it plans to announce the names of the members of the commission of enquiry next week.
“They will include some of South Africa’s foremost economists, business leaders and investment consultants.” — I-Net Bridge
On the net: Hellkom