Engineering News reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the SA Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) have jointly accused the SAA business rescue practitioners (BRPs) of violating the rights of their members working at the airline.  

In a joint letter, the unions warned that if the BRPs failed to reply to their demands by Tuesday, they would “have no choice” but to approach the high court to obtain an interdict against the BRPs.  The purpose of the interdict would be to prevent them from publishing their business rescue plan, which has to be released by 6 March.  The unions pointed out that under the Companies Act, SAA employees were considered preferred unsecured creditors.  As such, they have certain rights, which, they claimed, the BRPs have violated.  The unions explained further:  “So far the BRPs have acted unilaterally to restructure SAA and they are doing so without consulting workers in a genuine way and infringing workers’ rights under the Companies Act.  The BRPs have sent letters to employees who will be affected by the [BRP-decided] closure of the eleven [SAA] routes, compelling them to agree to drastically reduced hours. … We have advised our members not to sign these agreements as these are a direct violation of their rights in terms of the Labour Law.”  Numsa and Sacca want the BRPs to comply with four demands, which include releasing relevant document, releasing the draft business rescue plan, consultation with the workers and allowing them enough time to examine the plan and make suggestions and propose options.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News

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