Fixed-line phone operator Telkom said on Friday that only about 2 500 employees, or 16% of those represented in wage talks, had heeded union calls to down tools.
”Nationally, an approximate 2 500 employees, representing about 16% of Telkom’s workforce in the bargaining unit, has heeded the call for industrial action by Sacu [the South African Communications Union] and CWU [the Communication Workers’ Union] as part of a planned industrial action from August 1 to 5,” it said.
Telkom said its extensive contingency plans, involving full-time staff and contract workers, had been activated and the potential effects of the industrial action were being closely monitored across the company.
The protected industrial action is as a result of the unions’ non-acceptance of Telkom’s final wage-increase offer of 10,5%.
Telkom said the revised offer remains on the table for CWU and Sacu members while it continues with salary-increase implementation for Solidarity and non-unionised members.
Trade union Solidarity earlier this month accepted an average wage increase of 10,5% for its 4 000 members at Telkom.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions said earlier in the week that the two unions wanted Telkom to increase salaries by 12,5% for the year to end March 2009 and, retroactively, by 8,7% for the previous year. They also wanted Telkom to boost medical aid and other contributions.
Wage talks were opened after a sharp rise in local inflation to a five-and-a-half-year high of 10,9% in May — surpassing a level laid down under an agreement signed in 2006 above which negotiations could be restarted. — I-Net Bridge, Reuters