Heed lessons learned from Aurora, Solidarity warns over Velvet Sky: Employees likely to lose out the most
Velvet Sky not only appointed the same business consultants as Aurora Empowerment Systems, the airline is also following in Aurora's footsteps, trade union Solidarity said today. Solidarity further said that the airline's service providers and employees should take immediate action, or else they could meet the same fate as Aurora's service providers and employees.
This comes after the Pietermaritzburg High Court turned down a liquidation application by BP yesterday, following Velvet Sky's announcement that a mysterious foreign "investor" could get the airline out of its predicament. A business rescue plan was proposed as a further way out of the difficult position in which the airline finds itself. It is estimated Velvet Sky owes service providers more than R100 million.
According to Gideon du Plessis, Deputy General Secretary of Solidarity, Ahmed Amod, Aurora's legal representative, is also a director of Velvet Sky. The two notorious organisations also have several consultants in common and have followed almost identical courses of action.
"The most worrying aspect, however, is that the lessons learned from the Aurora debacle are not being applied in the Velvet Sky case," says Du Plessis. "The employees will, in all probability, lose out the most in this process, especially if, as in the Aurora case, it takes months before real action is taken. In the meantime, the employees are faced with a great deal of uncertainty."
In view of the strong similarities between the Velvet Sky and Aurora cases, Solidarity is of the opinion that Velvet Sky's eventual liquidation has merely been delayed. As soon as Velvet Sky has been liquidated, Solidarity will make a number of suggestions on further action to be taken, based on lessons the trade union learned in its fight against Aurora. "Meanwhile, Solidarity advises BP to not be bluffed by Velvet Sky."
Statement issued by Gideon du Plessis, Deputy General Secretary: Solidarity, March 8 2012
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