According to reports, trade union Solidarity has expressed its concern over potential retrenchments at mobile operator MTN. Solidarity revealed that the latest cuts would likely affect approximately 578 of the telecom providers employees.
MTN made an announcement during the course of January 2015, which stated that the company would be reorganising its Business Unit. In the statement MTN South Africa revealed that it had begun the process by opening discussions with employees, as it seeks to boost profitability.
According to BusinessTech MTN did not make it clear how many staff members would be included in the cull. According to BusinessTech, in addition to making substantial investments in the development of its people, MTN also plans to attract new skills to its Business Unit.
Solidarity revealed that it received a section 189 notice in which MTN advised that it would indeed start a process to restructure its local business unit. Solidarity head of the communication industry, Marius Croucamp, said MTN is constantly retrenching employees in an effort to ensure its long term sustainability. In August last year, MTN also initiated a section 189 retrenchment process which affected 847 members of staff in managerial positions, the trade union noted. During the past year, MTN has retrenched 476 employees, Solidarity said. It is unclear how many Solidarity members are affected by the latest redundancies.
In a statement made to BusinessTech, Croucamp concluded by saying: “Apart from lowered job security, retrenchments also lead to lowered production, which in turn, may result in further retrenchments. Solidarity will, therefore, focus on the well-being of employees during retrenchment consultations with companies within the industry.”
Staff Writer
