The Uasa trade union has expressed disappointment that the Labour Court, in a ruling handed down on Wednesday, had effectively given financially-beleaguered State-owned defence industrial group Denel until after September to meet its contractual financial obligations towards those of its staff who are members of the union.
Technically, the court ruled that the issue be addressed on a date that fell after September. This was for the purposes of judicial supervision and direction. Both the union and the company were currently waiting for the registrar to set a date for the hearing.
On the other hand, the court also ruled that the company must stay under its judicial supervision, to make certain Denel completely fulfilled a court order issued in August 2020. That court order required the company to pay its Uasa-member employees what it owed them.
“Uasa's protracted labour case against Denel started 19 months ago when it became clear that the company was not going to pay Uasa members and other workers in its employ their full salaries,” pointed out Uasa. “The union urges Denel to produce a practical plan for the payment of the outstanding statutory payments for the period May to July 2020, by September 2022.”
The union charged that Denel had hitherto shown no “sense of emergency” regarding its requirement to pay its staff. Although it had been granted “ample” time to come up with a plan, it had as yet not presented to the court a concrete proposal to pay its staff their back salaries (and other statutory payments).
“Uasa members employed at the company have been living under tremendous financial strain,” highlighted the union. “For the sake of these workers, Uasa will continue the legal battle against Denel until the enterprise honours all its outstanding contractual obligations.”