The National Union of Metal Workers (NUMSA) filed an urgent interdict at the Johannesburg Labour Court on Friday to compel Comair and it’s Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) to pay outstanding salaries to employees. Comair has not paid staff salaries since the 1st of June this year.
The airline has also failed to pay their portion of the medical aid and unions say they imposed unpaid leave on employees. This was done shortly after the company went into business rescue.
This week, BRPs for Comair submitted the business rescue plan and expectations are that the airline will resume operations by December.
Unions say the actions of Comair and its BRPs are in direct violation of the companies act which provides absolute protection for employees during business rescue proceedings.
We have applied for an #UrgentInterdict from the Johanesburg Labour court to compel the BRPs and management at #Comair to pay workers outstanding salaries and medical aid
.@British_Airways
.@kulula @IrvinJimSA @SAFTU_media pic.twitter.com/F4mEzTs1bd— NUMSA (@Numsa_Media) September 4, 2020
The Labour Court is expected to hear the matter next week.
“We want to make it clear that as NUMSA we were not consulted in this business rescue plan that was recently published, employees were not a priority and funding was used for other purposes and to protect other stakeholders at the expense of workers. One of the proposals which have been made is that workers must sign away and wave all their rights to remuneration until December and this is part of the business rescue plan and we as NUMSA, we reject this. The BRPs are also attempting to increase their exorbitant fees,” says NUMSA spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.
In May, NUMSA expressed shock and dismay that the airline was placed under business rescue.
