STAFF REPORTER
THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has condemned in the strongest terms the actions of the Department of Public Enterprises for deliberately misleading employees and management at SAA Technical (SAAT).
In a statement issued on Thursday, Numsa General Secretary Irvin Jim said the DPE has created the impression that a portion of the R1.5 billion which was allocated to SAA Business Rescue Practitioners would be used on subsidiaries of SAA, including Mango, SAAT and air chefs.
“This has created chaos and has disrupted the workplace at SAAT because workers there have only received 25% of their salaries for the last eight months,” said Jim.
“Workers are angry and are under the mistaken impression that the BRP’s at SAA are withholding the money, and therefore withholding their salaries. They are frustrated and yesterday they wanted to march to SAA to demand money from the BRP’s, when in fact, this money has not been allocated to them.”
Jim said workers at both entities are understandably desperate and frustrated, adding that the DPE was aware of all these issues, but instead of leading and finding viable solutions, the Minister, Pravin Gordhan, is playing chess games with workers’ livelihoods.
“He is deliberately pitting one group of workers against another. He is not helping to find solutions, but is plunging workers further into a crisis. He has absolutely no sympathy for their plight or their suffering,” said Jim.
“The actions of the minister have exposed his cold-hearted brutality, and he must stop pretending to care.”
He said Numsa was demanding the intervention of President Cyril Ramaphosa to stop the actions of the minister.
He said workers at SAA have also suffered with no pay for eight months, saying they have sacrificed 3 200 jobs to rescue the airline through retrenchments.
At the same time, Numsa said, workers at SAAT have been surviving on only 25% of their salaries, while the Executives at SAAT have been earning their salaries in full.
“Workers at SAAT have suffered immeasurably and they have no idea what the future holds, especially because SAAT is also in financial distress, and management claims they cannot afford to pay salaries,” said Jim.
SAAT is on the verge of collapse because of SAA, he added.
(SOURCE: INSIDE POLITICS)
