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66
Telkom Annual Report 2009
Human capital management (continued)
We remain committed to continuous
engagement
• 40 employees were nominated for the
NGN Professional programme.
• 100 employees have graduated to
date from the Advanced Operations
Management Development programme
(AOMDP).
• 81 employees attended the Gordon
Institute of Business Science (GIBS)
programme in managing the customer
relationship (PMCR), and
• 453 employees have been trained in
the Next Generation Network (NGN)
Essentials programme.
Employee engagement
Two developments stand out in the year
under review:
Union memberships – bargaining unit
• There has been a marked improvement
in our relationship with the unions, and
• There is the emerging phenomenon of
managerial employees joining trade
unions.
The former is, we believe, because of our
deliberate action in 2007 to invest in
rebuilding the relationship between
ourselves and the unions following 2006’s
industrial action. While the suspicions are
still there, the propensity to engage in
confrontational conduct has diminished.
There is also some semblance of shared
vision and a willingness to co-operate.
Although the latter increase is not material
it is, nevertheless, a worrying development,
albeit one that is within our control if we
are prepared to change the way we relate
to these employees.
Two factors are involved here – a feeling of
abandonment of junior and middle
management by top management, and the
annual general salary increase approach
which tends to treat management
employees as immune to the economic
hardships that we are all facing. As a result
of the increases gained by union members,
the unions are seen as viable vehicles for
channelling frustrations with some of our
practices.
Industrial action
Following an impasse in wage
negotiations in 2008, some 2,500 out of
Nonrecognised
Non- Grand
Union name CWU SACU Solidarity unions Total unionised total
Number of members 8,205 4,682 2,836 52 15,775 5,259 21,034
% membership: 2008/09 39.0 22.3 13.5 0.2 75.0 25.0 100
% membership: 2007/08 37.6 23.8 13.2 0.2 74.8 25.2 100
Union memberships – managerial staff
with the unions
Nonrecognised
Non- Grand
Union name CWU SACU Solidarity unions Total unionised total
Number of members 149 319 125 225 818 1,668 2,486
% membership: 2008/09 6.0 12.8 5.0 9.1 32.9 67.1 100
% membership: 2007/08 5.7 12.0 4.3 8.7 30.7 69.3 100