BL Premium reports that the North Gauteng High Court will on Tuesday hear an urgent application by the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) for an order compelling business rescue practitioner (BRP) Thomas Hendrick Samons to pay its members who are employees of the Northwest Transport Investments (NTI) their salaries and other benefits.

The long-outstanding payments include medical aid, pension fund and UIF contributions, from February to August. NTI is an entity of the North West provincial government which owns and runs the North West Star bus company (NWS) and Atteridgeville Bus Services (ABS), which employs more than 1,000 employees and transports thousands of commuters daily between the North West and Gauteng. NTI, NWS and ABS are in business rescue, with Samons appointed in 2022 as BRP by the provincial government. The nonpayment of salaries and employment benefits had taken a heavy toll on the employees, with some having lost their homes and cars, said Satawu’s legal representative, Dhevan Ramiah. Additionally, Satawu members who were employed by NTI, NWS and ABS and who had since retired, have allegedly not received their pension payouts. In his answering affidavit, Samons said that while Satawu was a registered trade union, “it is not the representative trade union in the workplace.” He elaborated: “During February 2024, I was approached by the SA Workers Union [Sawu], who presented me with the following documents [revealing that hundreds of] ... employees had indeed terminated their membership with the applicant.” Samons also argued that Satawu’s application was “as presented and prosecuted, an abuse of process and vexatious.”

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

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page