BL Premium reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) announced on Monday that it was taking legal action after the failure to pay workers’ salaries at SAA Technical (SAAT) and Air Chefs.

Both companies are subsidiaries of SA Airways (SAA). SAAT management had “promised” that workers would be paid on 1 April, after it failed to pay salaries on 27 March, Numsa said. SAAT has a staff complement of more than 2,200 and Air Chefs more than 1,200. The union said the non-payment of salaries at the two companies was unacceptable. It claimed that the failure to pay salaries was linked to the business rescue process under way at SAA. The airline has been in business rescue since December 2019 and relies on government bailouts to stay afloat. “We have instructed our attorneys to take legal action to recover the monies due to workers,” said Numsa national spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola on Monday. She added that the union will also write to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to intervene and hold the Department of Public Enterprises, the shareholder of SAA, accountable for “SAA’s failure to produce financial statements”. Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim pointed out that the department “failed to make provision for subsidiaries in the business rescue plan and, what is worse, it has not lifted a finger to ensure that employees are taken care of while SAA’s restructuring has been ongoing.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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