NUMSA condemns BRPS at Comair for attempting to bully employees into signing away their rights
17 September 2020
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) condemns in the strongest terms the actions of the Business Rescue Practitioners at Comair who are attempting to blackmail employees at the airline into signing away their rights ahead of the crucial creditors meeting tomorrow. The BRP’s at Comair have not consulted labour on the proposed business rescue plan and we reject their attempts to unilaterally impose changes to the terms of conditions of employment, without consultation.
There is a meeting today with all stakeholders where NUMSA and other employees are expected to sign the proposed collective agreement before close of business today. The BRPs have threatened that if we do not sign, one of the conditions precedent for the acceptance of the business rescue plan will not be met, and as a result the business rescue plan will not be approved on Friday, 18 September 2020 and the winding down of the Company will follow with concomitant job losses.
We are the majority union and we will not be signing the collective agreement nor will we be attending the meeting today. Whilst we are committed to constructive and honest engagements, we are certainly not prepared to sign collective agreements under duress and in circumstances where Comair is simply attempting to blackmail workers into signing. We do not deny that there might be legitimate challenges and financial constraints which may well justify employees making certain sacrifices, it is unfortunately quite apparent that the BRPs and the proposed investors are attempting to extract the maximum capital from the current disastrous economic situation to the detriment of employees and in a manner which constitutes perverse exploitation of those who are most vulnerable.
Included in the proposed Collective agreement is a waiver which BRPs want employees to sign. It stipulates that they must waive their rights to any income from April 2020 until the 1st of December or until the day the airline begins to operate. Once the airline is operational the terms and conditions of employment which workers have fought hard to secure over the years will be drastically reduced. For example, it envisages an airline which will operate on a reduced basis and employees are paid only 70% of their basic salary during the ramp up period. The annual increases which we secured in the past for employees will no longer be applicable in the new airline according to the proposed collective agreement. Basically the BRPs are amending the terms and conditions of employment and they are attempting to impose these changes without consultation which is a violation of workers’ rights in terms of the Labour relations Act. The BRP plan envisages an airline with only 1800 employees, which means at least 400 workers will be retrenched and the retrenchment process is expected to be finalized after the Business Rescue plan has been adopted.
We are also worried about the investors who have been secured for Comair. For example, Kirsten King was financial Director for Comair who resigned in October last year, and was supposed to emigrate to the UK. We are surprised that she is making a comeback as part of the team of investors at Comair. Glenn Orsmond was one of the joint CEO’s at Comair and an executive director and he only resigned this year after taking a package. Pieter Van Hoven is a former Managing Director at Comair. Martin Moritz was deputy chairperson of the board and worked closely with Rodney Sacks who served as a non-executive director of the airline for many years. All of these people are part of the team of investors who, through an investment vehicle Luthier Capital, have been chosen by the BRPs to invest in the airline. We have good reason to be concerned because under their leadership the airline ran into financial trouble, and this was long before the covid-19 pandemic hit our shores. Therefore, why should we believe that this time around the same people who were partly responsible for the financial distress of the airline, would be best placed to run a successful airline in the future? They failed to take measures to prevent the financial distress which the company is currently facing.
The BRPs at Comair have not engaged in an honest and constructive manner, and despite our positive commitment to engage in a solution driven manner, the approach of the BRPs has been one of intimidation and threats where employees are given the choice to either accept an outrageously unfair and unlawful collective agreement in terms of which they have to waive their contractual, statutory and Constitutional Rights, or accept that the airline will be wound down and they will lose their employment. We reject any attempts to bully employees into signing.
Aluta continua!
The struggle continues!
Issued by Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, NUMSA National Spokesperson, 17 September 2020
