The Johannesburg labour court will hand down judgment on trade union Solidarity’s urgent application to obtain an interdict against Telkom’s planned job cuts on Wednesday.
This comes after the judge, David Gush, heard the case on Tuesday morning.
Solidarity’s legal team argued before Gush on Tuesday that unions did not have enough information to work with regarding planned restructuring at the telecommunications company.
Solidarity’s court bid was then launched to halt Telkom’s plan to cut jobs in the light of the alleged lack of communication.
Telkom announced last month that up to 4 400 of its employees are expected to be offered voluntary severance packages or voluntary early retirement packages. Meanwhile, another 3 400 staff members are planned to be outsourced as part of an enterprise development programme.
The trade union said that Telkom had turned its back on agreements made in 2008 regarding a previous restructuring forum and memorandum of understanding agreed upon between unions and Telkom.
“The applicants (Solidarity) say they don’t have sufficient information to consider things,” said Solidarity’s lawyer, Craig Watt-Pringle. “Telkom is not complying with the process.”
However, Telkom’s legal team said that prior to issuing section 189 notices on 19 June, it held five meetings on the matter.
“They simply cannot make the statement that you haven’t provided the relevant information,” said Telkom’s lawyer, Puke Maserumule.
Maserumule also said that a previous memorandum of understanding made only information sharing compulsory.
“That memorandum obliges us to share information with the unions on the basis that it’s not a decision-making forum,” said Maserumule.
Telkom’s legal team said that the section 189 process is onerous enough to deal with the matter. Section 189 is a part of the labour law that deals with retrenchments.
Lawyers for Telkom also said that the company had called on the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to facilitate a consultation process with unions as part of a section 189 process.
The CCMA consultation process is expected to start on 8 July.
But Gush asked Telkom’s legal team whether the consultations were enough. “Five meetings is enough to fire 4 000 people?” he said.
Telkom’s legal team responded by saying that the company is “not indifferent and insensitive to the process”.
Gush said he would hand down judgment on Wednesday at 11am. — Fin24