SACCAWU'S preliminary comments on the order of the Competition Appeal Court

The Union notes that the Competition Appeal Court has finally delivered its judgment in the Appeal and Review applications against the decision of the Competition Tribunal which had approved the merger between Walmart and Massmart in June 2011. The order of the CAC includes the following critical areas:

1. It dismisses the review application with costs;

2. It upholds the appeal in part and sets aside the decision of the Tribunal and replaces it with its own decision which essentially approves the merger subject to the following conditions:

• That the merged entity should ensure that there are no retrenchments based on the merged entity's operational requirements in South Africa, resulting from the merger, for a period of two years;
• Reinstatement of the 503 employees who were retrenched in 2009 and 2010;
• Honouring all existing labour agreements by the merged entity for a minimum period of three years;
• Commissioning of a study to determine the most appropriate means together with mechanism by which local South African suppliers may be empowered to respond to the challenges posed by the merger and thus benefit.

Whilst the Union is happy that the CAC has set aside the decision of the Tribunal and replaced it with its own decision, which includes reinstatement of 503 employees who had been retrenched, the Union is currently studying the judgment and will release a detailed decision early next week.

Statement issued by Bones Skulu, SACCAWU General Secretary, March 9 2012

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