Telkom has put contingency plans in place ahead of a planned strike in its maritime radio division, the parastatal said on Wednesday.
It was reacting to a claim by trade union Solidarity that the strike, due to start at midnight on Wednesday, could cripple the monitoring of shipping emergency messages.
”Telkom has acted swiftly and has put in place contingency plans to mitigate the impact of the strike on our maritime operations,” Telkom executive for employee relations Meshack Dlamini said in a statement.
”Importantly, only 14 employees intend participating in the strike action.”
He said Telkom intended to ask the Labour Court for an urgent interdict against the strike, sparked by a dispute over duty rosters, but that it was also engaging with Solidarity with a view to reaching an agreement.
Earlier, union spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said the strike would involve 32 of the 39 staff at Milnerton Maritime Radio.
”The company [Telkom] has a contract with the Transport Department to perform distress watch-keeping, which entails receiving distress calls from ships at sea and taking the necessary steps.
”The strike may prevent this service from being delivered,” he said.
South African Maritime Safety Authority head Saleem Modak said distress-call monitoring was an emergency service, and could not legally be subjected to strike action.
”I’m quite confident that the emergency part of the facility will be attended to,” he said.
”I’m sure the trade union Solidarity wouldn’t jeopardise life at sea for their dispute.”
Kleynhans said management would have to say if it would be able to run the facility properly in the face of the strike.
Asked if his members would step in if the emergency service was in jeopardy, he said: ”Not at this stage, because we believe we have taken every step possible to prevent the strike.”
”Whatever happens there, our people will strike.” — Sapa