Unions take fight against retrenchments at SAA to Labour Court

The Labour Court in Johannesburg will be hearing an urgent application by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) on Thursday, to request an order from the court to interdict retrenchments at SAA.

“Our application is based on the fact that the business rescue practitioners (BRP) have failed to deliver on a business rescue (BR) plan, and therefore the section 189 retrenchment process which was started in March is unlawful in the absence of a BR plan,” the unions said in a statement on Thursday.

The unions said in their application they were seeking the following remedies:

1. That it be declared that BRP’s issuing of Section 189/189A notices on 9 and 19 March 2020, was unlawful, given that they have not presented a business rescue plan as contemplated in Section 150 of the Companies Act.

2. Alternatively declaring the BRP’s issuing of section 189/A to workers and their continuation with the consultative process in the absence of a BR plan as unfair.

3. Directing the BRP’s to withdraw the relevant Section 189/189A notices, or alternatively, directing them to suspend the consultative process until the applicants have been presented with a draft business rescue plan.

4. Assigned to the relief is that the BRP’s be directed that they may not issue retrenchment notices/letters of dismissal, because the processing of applications for severance packages were secured through an unlawful section 189 process.

5. “We also seek the protection of the condition of services, in other words, we seek the right to be considered on the government-sponsored Training Lay-Off scheme, instead of being retrenched in terms of the collective agreement.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

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