Reuters reports that trade union Solidarity on Tuesday welcomed a high court ruling that state-owned arms manufacturer Denel must fulfil its statutory obligations to pay over the unemployment insurance contributions and taxes deducted from employees’ salaries over several months.  

“It is a major victory for Solidarity and the Denel employees.  However, it is regrettable that we had to go to court just to draw Denel’s attention to payments that it should have made a while ago,” said Anton van der Bijl, head of Solidarity’s Legal Services.  Solidarity’s urgent application came after the struggling company announced earlier that it was only able to pay a certain portion of its employees’ salaries for June and July.  Certain statutory compulsory payments such as PAYE, UIF and the skills development levy were reflected as deductions on salary slips, but had not been paid over.  Solidarity’s Johan Botha commented that although the ruling was a major step in the right direction, the union was still concerned about Denel’s continued survival.

• Read the original of Emma Rumney’s report in the above regard at Moneyweb
• Read Solidarity’s press statement at SA Labour News

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page