Fresh from their court victory against telecommunication giant Telkom, three trade unions — Solidarity, the South African Communication Union and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) — on Monday announced the appointment of a commission of inquiry to look at the rationale behind the company’s planned retrenchments.
On Sunday the court ruled in favour of the three unions to stop Telkom from offering voluntary severance and early-retirement packages to workers from Monday.
The unions had sought legal action against Telkom’s plans to go ahead with the planned retrenchments of about 4Â 100 workers over the next three years.
The three unions on Monday disclosed the names of the advisers to participate in a commission of inquiry, which will look at the planned lay-offs.
Solidarity said the commission is to investigate the reasonableness of the planned retrenchment of Telkom workers.
The advisers on the commission are economist Dawie Roodt; Efficient Group managing director Charles Snyman; Peter Benjamin, African programme manager of the Open Knowledge Network; Wits School of Public and Development Management’s Dr Charley Lewis; legal adviser AC van Wyk; senior advocate John Grogan; and three former senior Telkom managers.
The trade unions could not, however, be drawn into how much this commission will cost them.
“It is going to cost us a lot of money, but we think it is going to be worth it,” Solidarity spokesperson Dirk Hermann added.
He also noted that the commission findings on Telkom’s planned retrenchments might not be binding for the company.
“I think the most important thing is that if the commission finds that there is no rationale behind the company’s planned lay-offs, we can then use this as legal ammunition,” he stated.
CWU telecommunication coordinator Mfana Futhi Sithebe said the trade unions have asked for government intervention as a majority stakeholder in Telkom.
“We are quite disturbed and concerned about the government’s mum response on the matter. We have written a number of letters to the departments of communication and public works, but unfortunately we have not received any response from them so far,” Sithebe said.
“How can a company that made a R4,5-billion profit afford to retrench workers in a country that has more that a 40% unemployment rate? Surely this is counterproductive to government’s plans to halve unemployment and reduce poverty?” he added.
The three trade unions stated that the commission is to investigate the legal, economic and technical motivations for the Telkom retrenchments.
The commission’s report will include macro-economic analysis of the environment in which Telkom operates, as well as an international comparison.
Hermann added that the commission will also look into Telkom’s financial statements, the remuneration of top management and cost of staff relative to turnover.
The Mail & Guardian Online could not reach the Telkom spokesperson for comment on Monday as his cellphone was turned off. — I-Net Bridge
Telkom backtracks on retrenchments