NUMSA AND SACCA ARE CONCERNED THAT DPE IS MISMANAGING THE RESTRUCTURING OF SAA

17 December 2020

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) have noted the proposal which the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) made to employees. The Business Rescue Practitioners and the DPE are currently trying to convince employees at SAA to accept a proposal where they will receive only 3-months remuneration and their 13th cheque, but they must relinquish five months’ salary which is owed to them.

Workers have been told that this is a necessary sacrifice in order to ensure the long term viability of the airline. They were given until close of business today to accept the offer. We reject attempts by the DPE and BRPs to extort money from workers and to exploit their desperation in order to deny them their remuneration. We condemn the minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan for this outrageous and unlawful proposal.

The DPE under the leadership of minister Gordhan has deliberately misrepresented the facts as to why workers at SAA must relinquish the 5-months remuneration which is owed to them. The DPE falsely claims that it is necessary for workers to do this in order to make the airline more sustainable in the long term, but in fact the real reason is so that DPE can funnel this money to fund SAA subsidiaries. The plan to turn SAA around is being funded and in terms of the projections, it needs R10.5 billion in total for this process which Treasury allocated in October. Workers’ salaries were factored into the total amount, therefore, it is false to claim that employees at SAA must make further sacrifices to ensure the viability of the airline. Also the offer which DPE is putting on the table to pay only 3-months salary, in practical terms actually means that workers will only get paid one month and one-week salary, because they are deducting TERS payments for the months of June, July and August.

We condemn minister Gordhan for his dishonest approach and for the shocking and insensitive manner of managing this process. The minister does not care about the sacrifices made by workers and their families. He has no regard for the suffering of their children who have had to endure a covid-19 lockdown with no income for eight months, and, who are still suffering even now during this festive season.

As NUMSA and SACCA we are also of the view that DPE has no right in terms of the law to attempt to negotiate directly with unions regarding the settlement of outstanding salaries at SAA. The Business Rescue Practitioners are tasked with implementing the turnaround strategy. The Business Rescue Plan was voted on by creditors, and any changes to how it is implemented, and this includes how money is spent, must be done with the approval of creditors at a creditors meeting. Any modifications must happen with the approval of the creditors, therefore, these discussions which are taking place outside of this process are deeply concerning for us because they are undermining the business rescue plan and process. The behavior of the DPE is exactly one of the many reason why SAA and other SOE’s have collapsed under its watch. There was rampant mismanagement of SAA and this is continuing. The process of restructuring the airline is being mismanaged by DPE and we are deeply concerned that if they are allowed to continue to act the manner in which they are behaving, then this restructured SAA is also doomed to fail.

The minister is forcing workers to resort to legal action in order to get what is legally owed to them. It is a scandalous that government as the shareholder of SAA and all our SOE’s, is inflicting so much misery on workers and their families’. We have sent a letter of demand through our attorneys saying we reject attempts to extort money from employees. We are calling again on President Cyril Ramaphosa to intervene on this issue by removing minister Gordhan. We demand the BRP’s must immediately pay all outstanding salaries without delay because the funding has now been allocated. We have made it clear in our communication that we are prepared to go to court in order to fight for what rightfully belongs to workers at SAA.

This statement was issued by NUMSA and SACCA by Zazi Nsibanyoni-Mugambi, SACCA President and Irvin Jim, NUMSA General Secretary, 17 December 2020