Telkom has been engaging with organised labour on the outsourcing of various business elements, as announced in February.
The company has issued a statement says it has identified a series of actions to unlock further cost efficiencies and improve customer service, in line with the company’s multi-year turnaround strategy.
“One such action involves the use of the Section 197 process of the Labour Relations Act, which would see certain services outsourced as going concerns,” it states. “Telkom’s call centre operations and staff are to be outsourced, as well as certain legacy IT billing systems, an internal printing division and the network and operations and retail supply chain sections.
“Companies may initiate outsourcing processes under section 197 of the Labour Relations Act to transfer staff to another company. The law requires that affected staff are transferred with the same or better packages and benefits and no formal consultation with unions is required. Telkom has, however, sought to engage with labour on the outsourcing process.
“The engagements include the outsourcing of the fixed line call centre operations. This will result in the transfer of current Telkom call centre employees to a new employer, through an automatic transfer under the Section 197 process.”
Telkom spokesperson Jacqui O’Sullivan says the outsourcing was a critical step in Telkom’s focus on the customer. “To succeed, everyone at Telkom has to put the interests of the customer at the heart of everything we do,” she says.
“Our customers are the core of our business, but running call centres is not. We know that customers will benefit from a focused and consistent service that a professional call centre organisation can offer. For this reason, we are confident this is the correct action to take.”
When Telkom initially embarked on its turnaround strategy, it stated that it would look at alternatives, such as joint ventures, to ensure that job losses would only be implemented as the last resort.
To this end, Telkom has completed a procurement process and has identified WNS as its preferred partner to undertake Telkom’s fixed line call centre operations, the company states. Similarly Barloworld Logistics has been identified to undertake the management of 25 Telkom warehouses in the supply chain area of the business.
It is proposed that the IT legacy systems will be managed by ASAJE. Bidvest has been identified to take over internal printing services, and Ingram Micro the supply chain in the retail area of the business.
Less than 1 300 employees are affected by the Section 197 process, all of whom have already been notified of the company’s intent to engage with organised labour on this matter, Telkom states.
