NUMSA has confirmed on Wednesday that employees of Airchefs finally got paid their salaries, after the company completed its internal audit.
Workers at SA Airways (SAA) subsidiary company, Airchefs, have been without pay since March last year.
The union said for 16 months’, employees at Airchefs – which provides in-flight catering services to airlines – had not been paid their salaries in full due to the lockdown, and the fact that the company was not operational.
Airchefs workers have been depending on the Temporary Employee Relief scheme (Ters) since then and received a Ters payment was for October.
It is reported that the culinary company has been struggling to make ends meet since the SAA was placed under business rescue in December 2019.
“Airchefs has experienced extreme financial difficulty after SAA was placed under business rescue,” said NUMSA’s general secretary Irvin Jim.
“NUMSA together with other recognized trade unions at Airchefs signed an agreement with the management of the company and the board that employees would receive 75% of their outstanding salaries. The remaining 25 per cent will be paid within 6 months.”
“Due to the fact that workers are now going to be paid in full, and already have received 75% of their salaries, it means that they do not require the relief money from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) Temporary Employee/er Relief Scheme (TERS) fund. (TERS is only payable when salaries from the employer are not being paid). Therefore, the outstanding TERS money from 16 October 2020 to July 2021 will no longer be paid.”
Jim said this agreement was signed following a set of meetings which took place after the metal workers union raised its condemnation against the board of Airchefs on its plan not pay workers the outstanding salaries.
However, that has now been resolved because workers finally received the money as promised on Tuesday.
“Employees at Airchefs have endured a lot. Sixteen months is a long time to go without full pay. Workers and their families have truly suffered a lot during this time and the payment of this money is a welcome relief,” said Jim.
“Meanwhile, the work of turning the entity around is continuing. NUMSA is actively engaging management and the board on ways to make Airchefs financially viable for the long term as part of a Joint Task Team that has been set up as part of the section 189 consultation process.
Jim added: “We are contributing to designing a final turnaround strategy for the SOC in order to make it sustainable and to hopefully, in order to save as many jobs as possible. NUMSA will continue to do everything possible to fight for workers and to defend their rights.”
In a letter sent to staff by management on August 18, the company said it had been engaging with labour on back pay for employees who “have struggled and have been hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
Air Chefs said in the letter that it had allocated R107m for the salary incentives.
“The company is thrilled to finally be in a position to provide this relief to its valuable and committed employees. The company appreciates all your contributions to the company.
“Due to the backlog in payroll administration, as a result of the salary incentive for April 1 2020 to July 30 2021, the company will process the payment of August 1 to 15 2021 days worked early in September 2021.”
- Inside Politics
