WINDHOEK – Telecom has not retrenched any of its workers but has embarked on voluntary separation as part of its efforts to cut labour costs, said Telecom Namibia managing director Frans Ndoroma, in response to yesterday’s story in New Era with the headline ‘Telecom retrenchments fuelled by drop in landline revenue’. “Retrenchment implies forcing people to go, and that is not what we are doing,” Ndoroma said.
Telecom Namibia is aggressively pursuing “voluntary separation” because the state-owned utility telecommunication company continues to incur huge staff costs, at N$506.419 million for the 2012/2013 million financial year, a huge jump from N$441.075 million in the previous financial year.
It was erroneously reported yesterday that the staff costs for last year was at N$21 million, a figure which the company yesterday said is totally incorrect and a glaring difference from the actual costs of half a billion dollars.
Ndoroma again said “voluntary separation is a natural separation,” where the company “is not replacing those who retire or those who leave or are dismissed unless it is critical. By doing that we are reducing costs.” He had previously said Telecom as a parastatal has an “obligation not to dump our people on the street. We have to assist government in managing social upkeep of the country, that is why we are not going about it aggressively but embarking on voluntary separation.”