Telecommunications giant Telkom on Tuesday said it was waiting for two striking unions to approach it directly about the reissue of a retracted offer to overcome a deadlock in wage negotiations.
”We are waiting for the unions to talk to us directly. We are then going to tell them what has been decided and what can be done further to alleviate the situation,” Telkom deputy CEO Charlotte Mokoena said when asked whether the unions had informed the company of their request to have the offer put back on the table.
Telkom issued a revised offer on Friday, which trade unions Solidarity and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) rejected. The initial offer was accepted by a third union at Telkom, the South African Communications Union (SACU).
Telkom retracted the revised offer on Monday after it became apparent the two unions intended to go on strike.
”We need to make it clear that there is no change in the unions’ stance as regards the offer that was put to us on Friday and then retracted. But we do need Telkom to put it on the table once more so that negotiations can resume,” Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said earlier on Tuesday.
”Once the offer is put back on the table we can negotiate it, go back to our members and receive a mandate from them as to what we can do next. But as things stand now, there is no offer on the table and absolutely no communication between us and Telkom,” said Kleynhans.
Solidarity on Monday said Telkom’s decision to withdraw the offer proved the company was not serious in its attempts to reach a settlement.
Mokoena, however, said the company was eager to resolve the issue before March 31 so that the new salaries and benefits could be rolled out by the April 1 deadline for its labour negotiations.
She said the 11 000 SACU and non-unionised members of Telkom would be paid as outlined in the initial offer to which they had agreed.
An estimated 2 000 employees marched on Telkom’s headquarters in Pretoria on Monday and handed over a memorandum listing their grievances, to Mokoena.
In the memorandum, Solidarity and the CWU demand R50 000 a year per worker from the company’s profits. They also call for an 8,5% salary increase for general workers and a 7,5% increase for supervisory and specialist workers.
Management is offering 6,5%.
The unions allege that the spread of salaries in Telkom is skewed in favour of management. They claim R1,3-billion was spent on 2 300 managers between April and September last year, while R1,8-billion was spent on the salaries of 23 500 workers over the same period.
Members of the striking unions were expected to conduct a go-slow and not do overtime on their return to work on Wednesday.
Mokoena said an assessment by Telkom showed the strike’s effect on its business had been minimal.
”On the practical level we had minimal interruption to our service as we had contingency plans in place. We had 83% of our staff at work today as well as temporary and contract staff,” she said. — Sapa