NUMSA and SACCA win court bid to stop unfair retrenchments at SAA
8 May 2020
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) have succeeded in their court application to have the retrenchment process initiated by the Business Rescue Practitioners at SAA, declared unfair. In a judgement which was issued today the Labour court found the following:
1. SAA and the BRP’s conduct in issuing a section 189(3) notice to consult is procedurally unfair
2. SAA and the BRP’s are directed to withdraw the notices
3. Nothing in the order precludes SAA and the BRP’s from offering, nor any employee of SAA from accepting any offer of voluntary retrenchment.
We welcome the judgment, this basically means is that we have been vindicated. The court is re-affirming that the Business Rescue Practitioners cannot retrench workers without a business rescue plan. Furthermore, as NUMSA and SACCA we have exposed the true motives of the BRP’s. We have said in our court papers that the proposal by the BRP’s of a winding down of SAA, without even producing a draft business rescue plan, is nothing more than an extended gravy train for the BRP’s and their advisors. They will strip the airline of its assets and continue to loot tax payer money at the expense of workers at SAA. The BRP’s were appointed five months ago at great cost to the tax payer they have produced nothing. NUMSA and SACCA are currently doing the work, which they have consistently failed to do, which is to devise a turnaround strategy for SAA and we are working with the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) on this, and we urge them to join us. The strategy also includes a plan to save SA Express, which is also facing liquidation and workers there are suffering today because of the failure of another set of BRP’s.
We want to thank our members for having faith in us and for trusting us to always act in their interests. We remain committed to saving as many jobs as we can at SAA and we call for unity because there is still much to do in order to achieve this goal.
Aluta continua!
The struggle continues!
Issued by NUMSA and SACCA, 8 May 2020
