‘State must act on Telkom job cuts’

COSATU has called on the government to intervene at Telkom‚ which announced job cuts last week. Telkom said it would cut 300 jobs at its corporate office and outsource a further 254 jobs. Cosatu denounced the cuts and called on the government to put a stop to these unilateral retrenchments that had been taking place at Telkom for the last 10 years. In 2006, Telkom had 25 575 employees‚ compared with 14 212 now. Cosatu accused the company of failing to consult stakeholders such as the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) and of negotiating in bad faith.

“We agree with CWU that this crude stunt by Telkom is a sneaky attempt to subvert the wage negotiations process‚” Cosatu said. “The cuts in real wages‚ retrenchments and widespread casual labour are a sign that government needs to act. “This action by Telkom makes a mockery of government’s commitment to create jobs and also improve the country’s telecommunications infrastructure. Telkom is not acting in line with the state’s developmental agenda . . . “Government has repeatedly stated it will never retrench any worker and they must therefore support their words with action,” Cosatu said. Telkom said yesterday that no decision had been made to cut its workforce by about 40% this year.