BL Premium reports that state-owned arms manufacturer Denel has fully paid outstanding salaries of R318m to its staff up to end-July and has payment plans in place with the SA Revenue Service for PAYE and the pension fund to settle its obligations.
This was announced by the group’s chair, Gloria Serobe, on Thursday. Some staff had not been paid salaries for more than two years while others had only received a percentage of their salaries. The funds to make the payment of salaries were derived from the surplus in the Denel Medical Benefit Trust, which released R992m after a process of about two years, including an application to court. The assets of the trust exceeded its actuarial liabilities. Of the R992m, R190m will be used for working capital and the remainder to finance the payment plans. Payment of the salaries meant Solidarity could lift the hold on Denel’s corporate bank account, which was effected when the company could not comply with a February Labour Court order for it to immediately pay R90m in outstanding salaries, the trade union’s Derek Mans indicated. Solidarity has also paid Denel the R1.6m it obtained from the auction of Denel Land System’s premises in Lyttleton two weeks ago and has suspended any further auctions. Serobe stressed that payment of the salaries would not address the immense problems facing the company, which has to be restructured to create a self-sustaining business with a significant order pipeline.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Linda Ensor at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Read too, Denel pays employees R318m in back pay after years-long battle, at Fin24
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