Numsa blasts DPE for ‘mismanaging’ SAA business rescue process

The business rescue process that was instituted at South African Airways (SAA) has been completely mismanaged by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) and it has dragged on for much longer than normal.

This is according to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim.

Jim further claimed that the fact that this process has taken over a year is unheard of.

His comments come after a recent meeting between Numsa and the executive management of Airchefs earlier this week regarding the non-payment of salaries of employees.

Airchefs workers have gone without pay since March 2020 and have reportedly had to rely on the Temporary Employee Relief scheme (TERS).

The last TERS payment they received was in October 2020.

“Since then workers have been forced to exist without any financial support,” explained Jim.

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Airchefs workers find themselves in this position due to the fact that the company they work for is a subsidiary of SAA – a company that has been in financial distress since the airline was placed under business rescue in December 2019.

“There was an expectation that once SAA takes off then its subsidiaries will also be able to recover, but unfortunately that has not happened. This has caused immense suffering for employees who have been unable to support themselves financially,” said Jim.

“Workers are enduring extreme suffering because they have gone months without pay. These are men and women who performed their jobs with passion and now they have been left bitterly disappointed by government, the shareholder,” he added.

He further claims that the financial woes faced by AIrchefs employees have been made worse because the department allegedly misled Airchefs management by claiming that money from the business rescue plan would be made available for them, which is not true.

“There has been no allocation of funding made for subsidiaries of SAA. Even though we raised this directly with the minister last year as part of the Leadership Consultative Forum at SAA, that subsidiaries like Airchefs, Mango and SAAT needed to be catered for, Pravin Gordhan ignored our proposal. Now there is no money for subsidiaries and workers are suffering.”

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Numsa went on to accuse the DPE of “ducking and diving” and the department allegedly does not want to avail itself to a meeting with Numsa and the management at the same time n order to set the record straight.

“The DPE has demonstrated extreme incompetence and its failures have cost workers and their families’ their livelihoods’. Instead of helping us to find solutions, the DPE has been misleading employees and management, and raising expectations.”

Another gripe that Numsa has with the department stems from the fact that SAA has not produced financial statements since the 2016/2017 financial year.

This has reportedly since prevented Numsa from an attempt to get cash into the hands of employees at Airchefs by placing them on a Training Lay Off scheme facilitated by the CCMA.

“The scheme allows companies which are in financial distress to apply for relief from paying salaries. Workers are place on training for a period of six months and 75% of their salaries are paid by the SETA while they train on a full time basis.

This takes the financial burden off the company. It allows employee to earn an income, whilst training full time and obtaining or upgrading their current skills, so that if they need to look for alternative employment they will be able to do so.”

Jim concluded by adding that they have provided the two other alternative solutions and that the ball in now in the DPE’s court.

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