South Africa’s parastatal Telkom, which has cut over half of its workforce since 1999, will retrench another 5 000 jobs. Labour unions tried in vain to block the lay-offs, officials said on Tuesday news reports said. Three trade unions secured a court order in August forcing Telkom to seek an agreement with the unions over the jobs cuts. But the company refused to back off from its plans. On Monday, it signed an agreement with the unions on Monday on retrenchment procedures.
The 5 000 retrenchments will happen over a period of three years with the first 1 300 starting this month to enable the Telkom to operate in a competitive environment. Telkom employed 62 000 people in 1999 but since then axed about 30,000 jobs.