EDCON DEAL SECURES 140,000 JOBS

1 March 2019

The COSATU-affiliated Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (SACTWU) warmly welcomes the announcement by Edcon, one of the largest South African clothing retailers, that an agreement has been concluded to stabilise the company and secure 140,000 direct and indirect jobs.

This agreement means a jobs massacre has been averted in the local clothing manufacturing industry.

Edcon buys the most locally made clothing products of any of the big 6 clothing retailers: 44% of the clothing it sells is made locally. Had it closed, the local clothing and textile manufacturing industry would have seen thousands upon thousands of workers being retrenched.

In October 2018, all social partners signed the Presidential Jobs Summit agreement, committing to create jobs and save existing jobs. The combined effort by Edcon, its bankers, the government, SACTWU and COSATU and its other affiliated trade unions to keep Edcon open gives practical implementation to the Jobs Summit’s commitments.

In our view this is an excellent example of what can be achieved when the social partners work together in unison in pursuit of one singular objective of job creation.

Statement issued by Andre Kriel, SACTWU, General Secretary, 1 March 2019