A South African labour union wants to prevent Telkom from continuing with its plan to eliminate up to 20 percent of its workforce as it tries to cope with falling sales at its fixed line business and with a weak South African economy, reports Bloomberg. The Communication Workers’ Union and Telkom appeared in the Labour Court on 26 February, the parties said in text messages.
The union says Telkom is rushing the process and has not considered other alternatives to job cuts that could affect as many as 3,000 employees.
Telkom started a consultation process with labor unions in January after a declining performance in its fixed-voice business, which previously made up more than half of gross revenue. Its fixed-data unit is also suffering because of the migration to mobile data, the company said, adding that it trying to achieve “organizational and operational efficiencies.”