Numsa and Comair reach deal on medical scheme contributions
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The business rescue practitioners for embattled airline operator Comair have yielded to union demands and agreed to continue paying their employees’ medical scheme contributions, but the parties have yet to decide on the critical wage issue.
National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said the union, Comair management and the business rescue practitioners are expected to meet on Tuesday over the nonpayment of salaries since workers were placed on unpaid leave on June 1.
“The business rescue practitioners put a clause in the proposed plan where workers waive their right to income until the end of November. That’s not something that we agree to,” she said.
The medical aid agreement brokered at the weekend effectively halts an urgent application by Numsa to the labour court challenging the airline’s refusal to pay wages or medical aid contributions. The case was due to be heard on Wednesday.
Numsa wanted the court to declare that Comair and its joint rescue practitioners, Shaun Collyer and Richard Ferguson, were acting unlawfully and unfairly in their alleged failure to remunerate employees since June 1, and over their threat to effect payment of the full medical scheme contributions from September 1.
“We were never consulted on that as Numsa. We need an opportunity to be consulted. We do reserve our rights to return to court if we don’t find each other on the issue of salaries.”
The Kulula operator and British Airways franchisee was placed in business rescue at the beginning of May. It was facing multiple headwinds and heading for its first loss in more than seven decades, after plunging R564m into the red in the first half of 2020 as cost increases outstripped revenue growth.
Its woes deepened after President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered a nationwide lockdown to slow down the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. Among the strict curbs that characterised the early stages of the lockdown were prohibitions on air travel and the closure of the nation’s borders.
Comair spokesperson Stephen Forbes said on Monday that “an agreement has been reached between the parties to postpone the urgent application scheduled for September 9 indefinitely”.
Hlubi-Majola told Business Day the union had resorted to the court because Comair had reneged on a promise it made to employees on August 26 to cover medical scheme contributions. “But last week Monday they suddenly withdrew that offer and said workers should pay [it themselves],” she said. ...
National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said the union, Comair management and the business rescue practitioners are expected to meet on Tuesday over the nonpayment of salaries since workers were placed on unpaid leave on June 1.
“The business rescue practitioners put a clause in the proposed plan where workers waive their right to income until the end of November. That’s not something that we agree to,” she said.
The medical aid agreement brokered at the weekend effectively halts an urgent application by Numsa to the labour court challenging the airline’s refusal to pay wages or medical aid contributions. The case was due to be heard on Wednesday.
Numsa wanted the court to declare that Comair and its joint rescue practitioners, Shaun Collyer and Richard Ferguson, were acting unlawfully and unfairly in their alleged failure to remunerate employees since June 1, and over their threat to effect payment of the full medical scheme contributions from September 1.
“We were never consulted on that as Numsa. We need an opportunity to be consulted. We do reserve our rights to return to court if we don’t find each other on the issue of salaries.”
The Kulula operator and British Airways franchisee was placed in business rescue at the beginning of May. It was facing multiple headwinds and heading for its first loss in more than seven decades, after plunging R564m into the red in the first half of 2020 as cost increases outstripped revenue growth.
Its woes deepened after President Cyril Ramaphosa ordered a nationwide lockdown to slow down the spread of Covid-19 pandemic. Among the strict curbs that characterised the early stages of the lockdown were prohibitions on air travel and the closure of the nation’s borders.
Comair spokesperson Stephen Forbes said on Monday that “an agreement has been reached between the parties to postpone the urgent application scheduled for September 9 indefinitely”.
Hlubi-Majola told Business Day the union had resorted to the court because Comair had reneged on a promise it made to employees on August 26 to cover medical scheme contributions. “But last week Monday they suddenly withdrew that offer and said workers should pay [it themselves],” she said. ...