South Africa’s Telkom agrees performance-based pay deal with unions

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JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African fixed line telecoms network operator Telkom has reached a performance-based pay deal with two of it three largest labour unions while agreeing not to cut jobs for two years, the company said on Tuesday.

Telkom, reported a 15 percent rise in full-year profits on Monday after completing a three-year restructuring as it adapts the business to slowing revenue from fixed-line telephony and a sharp increase in data traffic.

The firm said on Tuesday it had signed a deal with Solidarity and the South African Communications Union to implement a performance-based remuneration scheme for both individual employees and teams. A third union, the Communications Workers Union, has agreed in principle, Telkom said.

“The agreement covers Telkom’s 11,000 unionised employees, out of a total headcount of just over 13,500 at the end of March 2016,” Telkom said in a statement.

As part of the deal, Telkom committed to no compulsory job cuts for the next two years and limiting outsourcing moves to less than 1,000 employees over the same period.

Telkom, in which the government owns a stake of about 40 percent, said it would not be offering any employee an annual increase in pay this year but was willing to pay workers more if they reached certain targets.

“The company is offering employees the opportunity to earn up to 12 percent more each month should they meet and exceed sales and customer service targets,” Telkom said.

 

(Reporting by TJ Strydom; Editing by James Macharia, Greg Mahlich)

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