Three Telkom unions accused the telephone monopoly on Tuesday of undermining the government's mandate to create jobs and fight poverty by threatening to retrench workers and charging excessive call rates.
The unions say they refused to believe that the company - 37,8 percent owned by the state - was following "the mandate of government" as claimed by Telkom's management.
Dirk Hermann, speaking on behalf of Solidarity, the Communication Workers Union and the South African Communications Union, said if this was so, the company would be creating more jobs instead of reducing its workforce by 7 600 people in the next three years.
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Hermann said the unions and the company were "locked in a battle of ideas".
'The best way to make money for its shareholders was to fire staff' Telkom seemingly believed the best way to make money for its shareholders was to fire staff. The unions thought a better approach was to improve and expand services.
Referring to last week's announcement of the belated coming of a rival for the landline monopoly, Hermann said Telkom could not hope to tackle the second network operator by just cutting costs.
He was also concerned about the apparent "shareholder fundamentalism" of Telkom's management. "This idea is embodied in Telkom's previous annual report and in particular in the wording of the company's strategic aim: 'To increase shareholder value by increasing profit and cash flow.' By contrast, the trade unions want an approach that takes all stakeholders into account."
He said these included the company's staff and clients.
Hermann said Telkom's premise was that technological progress and process changes made it possible to render the same service with fewer people.
'Poor South Africans can afford to have a phone - but cannot use it' "The trade unions feel that this is a reactive argument. Technology is allowed to dictate business strategy. We believe technological progress will enable Telkom to do more with the same number of staff," Hermann said.
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