Woes do not rest - After SAA Pilots Association (SAAPA) threatened to go on strike, Numsa is behind the financial statements of South African Airways now.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) says,
it will write to the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) against the South African Airways for failing to table audited financial statements.
This is after SAA failed to pay its workers at its subsidiaries in the last few months with SAA Technical workers not paid as promised on Thursday.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said on Saturday, " SAA must be held accountable for this behaviour and called on Scopa to act."
SAA and business rescue practitioners appeared before Scopa last week where the BRPs said they were going to exit the business by the end of March.
National Treasury has injected R10.5 billion over the last few months to allow the airline to get back on its feet.
The national carrier has been grounded from December 2019 following a crash crunch and it was put under business rescue.
At an earlier occasion, SAA Pilots Association (SAAPA), had threatened to go on strike from April 1st. SAAPA represents about 89% of all SAA’s pilots.
SAA pilots say they've been left with no option but to go on strike. Pilots belonging to the SAA Pilot Association have been locked out of the workplace since December last year. #DStv403 #eNCA #SAA pic.twitter.com/BCW9iLCG09
— eNCA (@eNCA) March 31, 2021
Jim said the situation at SAA has reached unacceptable levels with workers left in the lurch after not being paid despite promises.
"Workers at SAA Technical and Airchefs have not been paid because the parent company, SAA, has not submitted audited financial statements."
Jim adds, management at SAAT had promised workers would get their salaries on April 1, after failing to pay them on March 27.
Jim also says,
“But as things stand, not a single worker at SAAT has been paid and there is no clarity, or direction from the executive management about when this will be resolved. Workers have simply been left in limbo and they are forced to fend for themselves. Workers at Airchefs are suffering an even worse fate because they have not received any income since October last year.”
He wants Scopa to intervene and launch an inquiry into SAA and he expects that the financial statements will reveal the true picture of what happened at SAA.
“In the meantime, we will be writing to Scopa to request that it conducts an independent inquiry into SAA and the business rescue process,” said Jim.
Earlier, SAAPA chair - Grant Back had said,
“SAAPA members have been targeted in a vindictive and slanderous fashion by the Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) and the Department of Public Enterprises in the press and recently at Scopa, where the minister himself targeted SAAPA and made a statement that SAAPA was sabotaging the relaunch of SAA.’”
