SABC welcomes Labour Court’s decision in Bemawu’s application

The SABC has welcomed the Labour Court’s dismissal of trade union Bemawu’s urgent application for the public broadcaster to retract redundancy letters it has already issued as part of its retrenchment process.

The union also wanted the court to compel the public broadcaster to engage in a fair process regarding its restructuring plans which could see as many as 400 permanent staff members lose their jobs.

The SABC says the restructuring is necessary to make the public broadcaster financially sustainable. SABC COO Ian Plaatjies says that the court ruling validates the processes they’ve followed.

“We’ve always known that our process would be able to stand any legal or moral scrutiny. Some people have not received their letters yet, those will not be issued during this month, because we are freezing everything during this month basically. We will engage with all parties around the structures, we will finalize that, we will then communicate what the structures are, and if there are additional people that are impacted or people that are not impacted again, those letters will be issued in the first week in January and the process will continue,” says Plaatjies

Bemawu says it might seek leave to appeal this morning’s judgment of the Labour Court in Johannesburg.

 Bemawu’s Hannes du Buisson reacts to the court’s judgment on its application

 Labour court dismisses union Bemawu’s urgent application against job cuts