Telkom has got around the unions in its bid to cut staff by offering a sweet deal to its 18000 employees that goes well above the minimum requirements of labour legislation, but at a cost of R1.1-billion. By Friday, 2399 technicians, training staff, managers and executives had opted to take voluntary severance or retirement packages. The company said most of them would leave immediately.This is still shy of the 4400 jobs Telkom needs to cut to reduce costs, but it plans to outsource 3400 jobs to contractors or through enterprise development arrangements.Telkom's plan to reduce headcount was initially stymied three weeks ago, when the Labour Court stopped its retrenchments and ruled that it must meet trade unions, which wanted Telkom to convene a restructuring forum.But an attractive offer to staff has yielded results.story_article_left1Jacqui O'Sullivan, Telkom's managing executive for group communication and public relations, said the severance offer included pro rata share payouts and five months' notice pay, much more than the one month's notice pay required by law. Telkom is also offering two weeks' pay for each of the first 10 years of service, which is also above the basic requirement. Student loans and phone debts will be written off.Telkom staff who accept the severance deal will also get R60000 for further training or a lump sum of R40000, which is taxable, and a telephone rebate.O'Sullivan said: "The telephone rebate is something exclusively available to current employees who have opted for a voluntary retirement package. They can choose to maintain the rebate on their landline or they can give up the rebate and opt for a R5000 cash payment."Clyde Mervin, the president of the Communication Workers' Union, said: "Even if we interdict, workers are going to resign from the union ... and they will still take the package. Telkom was very clever by putting those packages out there and tempting workers, who fell for that."We've done everything in our power. We've done a road show, we've advised members."Members have advised us they want to move on. One shop steward said: 'President, I'm leaving, I'm going to run a business. I've done my part.' How do you stop that person?"But some unions plan to challenge Telkom at a meeting tomorrow over what they called "scare tactics".Karriem Abrahams, the spokesman for the South African Communications Union, said: "Members want the package because the company is using scare tactics to tell them that they are not going to get this opportunity again." Abrahams said Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko's plan to introduce three-day working weeks and freeze salaries had made staff anxious.Maseko said recently that Telkom was only investigating these options.The union has sought legal advice but Abrahams said if staff signed voluntarily, it would be difficult to challenge the severance packages.Marius Croucamp, the spokesman for Solidarity, questioned Telkom's ability to deliver services to its customers if a large number of employees left.Abrahams said Telkom would rehire the technicians as contractors .story_article_right2Allan Bothma, an investment analyst at Afena Capital, said: "The market's expectations for staff reductions were looking for around half of this number for the full year in 2016."Philip Short, an investment analyst at Old Mutual Investment Group, said: "One can safely assume that this will be value-enhancing as employee expenses constitute by far the largest expense at the company, representing about 30% of group revenue."Yet the challenges for Telkom are still great. Bothma said: "There is some upside, but Telkom's core fixed business is still going backwards."Short said that although "this is progress, more needs to be done to make Telkom as efficient as its peers, and [it] would need to move forward with more retrenchments".On Friday, Telkom said its revenue for the three months to June increased 1.7% year on year to R6.5-billion, helped by its mobile and fixed-line data divisions.Telkom's share price rose 7.86% to R61.48 on Friday after the trading update was released, which included confirmation of the job cuts.The company previously said it had reduced its staff costs by 3.6% to R8.7-billion in the year to March from R9-billion the previous year.Maseko previously said the aim was to cut staff costs from 29% to 25% of revenue over three years.speckmana@sundaytimes.co.za..