NUMSA condemns DPE for misleading employees at SAAT about their salaries

10 December 2020

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) condemns in the strongest terms the actions of the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) for deliberately misleading employees and management at SAA Technical (SAAT). The DPE has created the impression that a portion of the R1.5 billion which was allocated to SAA Business Rescue Practitioners (BRP’s) would be used on subsidiaries of SAA, including Mango, SAAT and Airchefs.

This has created chaos and has disrupted the workplace at SAAT because workers there have only received 25% of their salaries for the last eight months. Workers are angry and are under the mistaken impression that the BRP’s at SAA are withholding the money, and therefore withholding their salaries. They are frustrated and yesterday they wanted to march to SAA to demand money from the BRP’s, when in fact, this money has not been allocated to them.

We also want to set the record straight on the misleading statement by the DPE:

1.     DPE has not requested that SAA workers accept that salaries must be deferred by 3-months. This was a proposal which NUMSA and SACCA put on the table as an alternative to what the DPE through SAA management proposed in writing to employees. DPE and the SAA management want employees to accept only 3-months’ salary plus their bonus, but they must forfeit the remaining 5-months salaries owed to them by SAA, and all other statutory payments.  NUMSA regards this as not just a travesty of justice in light of the fact that NUMSA and SACCA were part of putting together a turnaround strategy which saved the airline from liquidation. Built into our turnaround plan, which was finally adopted by the creditors and all interested social partners, was a budget for a business rescue process which includes the salaries of poor workers. We regard this proposal by DPE and SAA management’s refusal to pay what is due to them, as nothing less than, broad daylight robbery of what belongs to workers.

2.     We have seen media reports alleging that DPE is doing this to funnel money from SAA to its subsidiaries. If these claims are true, then it is unlawful and we reject it with contempt. The R1.5 billion which was allocated to SAA is only enough to pay SAA employees’ salaries in full and this includes all outstanding claims, and all monies must be paid to them.

3.     The Business Rescue Process is a process which government embarked on voluntarily. They deliberately excluded NUMSA and SACCA and imposed their own plan. DPE even walked away from the Leadership Consultative Forum (LCF) which was a structure where labour is supposed to engage and find solutions on SAA. This is their plan and from day one, they deliberately chose to exclude subsidiaries from the plan. It would be unfair and irresponsible for us to allow them to engage in this patently unlawful act.

4.     It would be immoral to take money from one group of workers, in order to pay another. Workers at SAA have also suffered with no pay for eight months. They have sacrificed 3200 jobs to rescue the airline through retrenchments. At the same time, workers at SAAT have been surviving on only 25% of their salaries, whilst the Executives at SAAT have been earning their salaries in full. Workers at SAAT have suffered immeasurably and they have no idea what the future holds, especially because SAAT is also in financial distress, and management claims they cannot afford to pay salaries. SAAT is on the verge of collapse because of SAA. Workers at both entities are understandably desperate and frustrated.

DPE is aware of all these issues, but instead of leading and finding viable solutions, the Minister, Pravin Gordhan, is playing chess games with workers’ livelihoods. He is deliberately pitting one group of workers against another. He is not helping to find solutions, but is plunging workers further into a crisis. He has absolutely no sympathy for their plight or their suffering. The actions of the minister have exposed his cold-hearted brutality, and he must stop pretending to care.

We demand that the Presidency must intervene and stop the actions of the minister. Surely this must be the final straw? SAAT is on its knees, SA Express has collapsed and SAA is in ICU and so is Denel. These are all entities which fall under the leadership of minister Pravin and he has failed. We repeat the call for Pravin to be fired. He is an SOE wrecking ball and he is at the center of this crisis, and he is worsening the situation instead of helping us to find solutions.

We call upon government to ensure that subsidiaries like SAAT and Airchefs urgently receive money in order to operate. It was government which allowed corruption to cripple these entities and it must find a solution which does not involve workers making further sacrifices. We have seen only Musa Zwane former CEO and PhumezaNhantsi the acting CFO of SAAT being dismissed for misconduct. We demand a total clean-up of SAAT, and that means an entirely new executive management and an entirely new board.

As far as we know only Peter Tshisevhe remains as the only SAAT board member, and he has failed dismally in his fiduciary duties. The company is falling apart under his watch. Executives who have been implicated in the Open Waters Forensic investigation into corruption at SAAT continue to serve. Tshisevhe seems to only have an appetite for collecting board fees. He must be dismissed and an entirely new board and executive must be appointed. (We will say more on the new board at SAA in due course). What the minister is proposing is unfair on workers, and unlawful and we cannot and will not support his proposal. The DPE must be condemned for worsening the situation for workers at SAAT.

What is to be done?

We demand that government as the shareholder must find a solution for SAAT and all other subsidiaries of SAA, and this solution, must be in line with the law, and should not involve workers making any further sacrifices. The ANC government has a responsibility to ensure that employees receive their salaries in full. It has a duty to ensure that SAAT as an entity receives the proper funding and good, clean management that it so desperately needs. We cannot let the DPE off the hook, it must fulfill its obligation to SAAT and all other subsidiaries of SAA.

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

Issued by Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, National Spokesperson, NUMSA, 10 December 2020