Telkom employees returned to work on Wednesday after a two-day wage strike, the company said. ”They are back,” said company spokesperson Lulu Letlape.
All that remained was for trade unions Solidarity and the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) to contact Telkom about its revised profit-sharing and wage offer made on Friday.
The revised offer, made on condition that workers not strike this week, was withdrawn when their industrial action continued on Monday.
Solidarity claimed it would use Monday’s action to obtain a mandate from its members on the revised offer. The CWU rejected it outright.
They have since asked that it be put back on the table.
A third union representing 11 000 Telkom workers, the South African Communications Union, has already accepted an offer by the company.
Telkom’s decision to withdraw the offer proved the company was not serious in its attempts to reach a settlement, Solidarity charged. However, Telkom’s deputy CEO Charlotte Mokoena countered that the company was eager to resolve the issue before March 31.
In a march to Telkom’s headquarters in Pretoria on Monday, 2 000 Solidarity and CWU members handed over a memorandum of grievances.
They demanded R50 000 a year per worker from the company’s profits. They also called for an 8,5% salary increase for general workers and a 7,5% increase for supervisory and specialist workers.
Telkom is offering 6,5%.
The unions 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, but Letlape could confirm this.
CWU spokesperson Mfanafuthi Sithebe could not be reached for comment. — Sapa