Telkom and two unions representing most of its workers have failed to reach an agreement over salary increases for the 2023/2024 financial year.
This week, an alliance consisting of the Communications Workers Union and South African Communications Union informed their members that they failed to agree with Telkom and Gyro Group following two dispute resolution meetings.
The alliance originally sought a 15% wage increase but had reduced this to 9% during the last meeting — convened on 3 August 2023.
According to a notice sent to staff that MyBroadband has seen, the alliance kept its other demands “as per the status quo”.
However, Telkom told MyBroadband it was facing financial challenges due to the prevailing economic environment and could not afford any increases in fixed costs.
“Unfortunately, the internal negotiations process has run its course without reaching a negotiated settlement agreement,” the company said.
It has instead offered some improvements on variable cost items, and terms and conditions of employment.
These include a 9% increase in the standby allowance from R1,166 to R1,266 per week, and converting the current ten days of unpaid paternity leave to paid paternity leave.
It has also offered to increase long-service bonuses, paid out every five years, by roughly 10%, as shown in the table below.
| Telkom long-service bonuses | ||
| Years of service | Current (2022/2023) | Revised (2023/2024) |
|
5 |
R1 000 |
R1 100 |
|
10 |
R1 350 |
R1 485 |
|
15 |
R2 030 |
R2 233 |
|
20 |
R4 050 |
R4 455 |
|
25 |
R5 400 |
R5 940 |
|
30 |
R6 750 |
R7 425 |
|
35 and each subsequent 5-year period |
R8 100 |
R8 910 |
However, the improvements were insufficient for the alliance, which said it would refer the wage dispute to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA).
Telkom said it valued the “constructive working relationship” it has established with the alliance over the years.
“The commitment and dedication of all stakeholders to resolving this impasse is critical to the long-term sustainability of Telkom,” the company said.
In the meantime, Telkom and Gyro would implement their final wage settlement offer with the aforementioned improvements on variable costs.
This will come into effect in September 2023 due to downtime in the payroll system, and be applied retrospectively to 1 April 2023, the alliance said.
