Telkom’s proposed restructuring

Official Telkom spokesman Jacqui O’ Sullivan confirmed that Telkom anticipates a nett headcount reduction of 4 400 people through Voluntary Severance Packages (VSPs) or Voluntary Early Retirement Packages (VERPs).

There is also the potential use of retrenchment through the Section 189 process.

She says they expect to outsource around 3 400 staff to other companies or through enterprise development.

However, this option is where Telkom will assist existing employees to develop their own new businesses.

These businesses, which will be owned and managed by former Telkom employees, would then be able to contract their services back to Telkom along with any other service providers in this growing and competitive industry.

Telkom Wholesale, a new separate wholesale business Telkom started, will end up with an estimated 4 000 full-time employees.

On Tuesday (June 9) Telkom engaged with organised labour in its restructuring forum.

In this forum they discussed the business case and operating model approach, as well as the potential timelines for collaboration on these important actions.

O’Sullivan says Telkom would like to collaborate with organised labour through working groups, which will focus on how to best mitigate potential workforce impacts on its people.

They proposed the activation of working groups, while at the same time making the VSPs and VERPs open to interested and affected Telkom employees.

“The proposal was not well-received by organised labour and in another bid to work with the unions, to find a way forward to best manage this process, Telkom has chosen to postpone the Company Forum for Thursday (June 18),” she says.

“Telkom is now in the second year of its multi-year turnaround strategy.

” Initial cost savings, major management restructuring and efficiency actions have delivered important improvements.”

However, these next restructuring actions, which will effectively reshape Telkom’s operating model for the future, are critical to ensure the long-term commercial sustainability of the business.

“We remain committed to team up with organised labour in the best interest of Telkom and its people,” O’Sullivan adds.