Solidarity demands that Telkom abandon race criteria for retrenchments - Labour Court case looming

Trade union Solidarity today gave Telkom a final warning to abandon the race criteria it uses for retrenchments. Telkom has already been warned by Solidarity on several occasions during the retrenchment process that employment equity criteria, which include considerations of race, should not apply to retrenchments.

According to Marius Croucamp, Solidarity's Head of Industry, it is unlawful to use considerations of race in the process of deciding who is to be retrenched. "Retrenchment is a ‘no fault' dismissal. How can any employer penalise an employee based on his or her race in the decision-making process to retrench people? This criterion is simply built into the process to ensure that Telkom's BEE rating is promoted and to ensure that the ANC's ideology of absolute race representivity is achieved."

According to Croucamp, Telkom has confirmed these objectives on many occasions. "Telkom insists that it is an operational requirement to achieve such race representivity and to retain its BEE rating. Solidarity differs fundamentally with this position and rejects any view that a person's race could be used against him or her to accomplish these goals."

Solidarity is currently consulting with its legal team and is preparing court papers to fight the issue in the labour court. "This issue is of such importance to Solidarity that we will take it as far as the Constitutional Court. These practices will open a door for employers to achieve demographic representivity and BEE through retrenchment," Croucamp says.

Statement issued by Marius Croucamp, Industry head, Solidarity, July 3 2014

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter