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Africa|Business|Cutting|Defence
Africa|Business|Cutting|Defence
africa|business|cutting|defence

Unions Numsa and Sacca strongly denounce SAA BRPs

14th May 2020

By: Rebecca Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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Two of the trade unions which represent employees at the financially embattled State-owned airline South African Airways (SAA), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) have condemned “in the strongest terms” the decision by the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) who currently oversee SAA to appeal a Labour Court ruling last Friday (May 8) in favour of the unions. The two unions had applied to the court to have the Section 189 retrenchment process initiated by the BRPs at SAA declared unfair. The court interdicted the retrenchment process and ordered the BRPs to produce a business rescue plan before they could carry out retrenchments.

In an emotional press release, the two unions accused the BRPs of being “unscrupulous”, “parasites” and “vultures”, “whose only interest is to loot the airline and collapse it for their own selfish purposes”. They affirmed that they would maintain their defence of SAA’s employees and would oppose the BRPs legal action, which they described as “frivolous”.

“It is bad enough that for five months the BRPs have failed in their core mandate to deliver on a business rescue plan,” charged the unions. “They have wasted more than R5-billion which was given to the airline as post commencement funding, and they have nothing to show for it.”

The unions further attacked the BRPs for cutting eleven SAA routes, claiming that this had effectively prevented SAA from generating further revenues. “At the same time,” claimed Numsa and Sacca, “they refused to cancel bloated corrupt contracts, which continue to bleed the airline dry.”

They accused the BRPs of seeking an appeal in order “to defend their gross ineptitude and incompetence” and of wasting taxpayers’ money in the process. Instead, asserted the unions, the BRPs should be focused on producing a business rescue plan for SAA. They also demanded a thorough investigation into how the BRPs had used the funding they had been granted.

“This court case is not just about saving SAA against a pair of unscrupulous BRPS,” asserted the two unions. “It’s about challenging the BR industry whose strategy seems primarily focused on collecting fees and stripping the assets of distressed companies. This is against our interests as a country, especially against a backdrop of the shockingly high poverty and unemployment statistics. The judgement of Friday was a reminder to the entire industry that the mandate of BR is just that – business rescue and they have a duty to do the work to turn around an entity for the long term.”

 

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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