Saccawu supports Edcon’s business rescue plan

The South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) supports the newly-voted business rescue plan for retail giant, Edcon.

On Monday night, creditors for Edcon voted in favour of the business rescue plan that could potentially see massive job cuts.

The group earlier this year failed to find a buyer and applied for business rescue.

Saccawu says they supported the plan because they do not want to see Edcon being liquidated and jobs being lost.

The union also voted against the Business Rescue Practitioners adjusting their service fee.

The BRPs wanted to charge R45 000 per day instead of the agreed fee of R17 500 per hour.

Saccawu spokesperson Mike Sikani says, “The delegation of the union presented its rational around the support of the plan that was presented by the Business Rescue Practitioners. Which at the heart of it all, Saccawu supported the plan purely on the basis that it’s a rescue plan for business and therefore follows that jobs that are at stake at the moment can be saved. Our support for the plan was only on two things … that we want business to be rescued in South Africa and secondly the selling of the business was a concern.”

About 22 000 jobs likely to be affected at Edcon

Twenty-two-thousand is the number of jobs reportedly on the line at the retail group Edcon.

Although 17 000 is the number of permanent employees that can be formally retrenched.

Edcon which owns Edgars and Jet has blamed the lockdown for a collapse in sales and its inability to pay suppliers.

The 90-year-old company has been placed in business rescue and it’s looking for buyers to avoid being liquidated.

In the video below, Economist Thabi Leoka looks at the impact of COVID-19 on Edcon