Just as South African Airways (SAA) is getting ready for take-off on September 23, its subsidiaries are getting their wings clipped with employees at Air Chefs unpaid for over a year now while Mango continues with its business rescue.
A deal was concluded with The South African Transport & Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) on Monday for Air Chefs employees to receive 75% of their unpaid salaries by today, which will cover the period of April 2020 to July 2021 while the remainder of their salaries would be paid within six months.
But on Thursday Air Chefs backtracked and announced it first needed to complete internal audits with the hope that employees would receive their salaries by Monday, September 13.
SATAWU said it was “flabbergasted” that its members would have to wait even longer for salaries.
The union said it would be consulting its lawyers around getting salaries paid by Friday, September 17 as it does not trust that Air Chefs will be able to make payment on Monday.
August salaries have so far been paid from an R2.7 billion allocation that was made for SAA subsidiaries that fall part of a larger R10.5 billion allocated for SAA’s rescue plan.
Meanwhile, public enterprises director-general Kgathatso Tlhakudi told parliament that government would no longer be funding any bailouts for state-owned enterprises, finally drawing a line in the sand for ailing SOE’s.
Tlhakudi did, however, say that was expansion possible with SOE’s, government would make considerations for funding if there were a positive cash flow and room for growth.
The DG further said that the restructuring process for the SAA subsidiaries have been delayed but remain on track to be completed while Tlhakudi said government wants to avoid putting Air Chefs and SAA technical into business rescue.
And in the markets, the rand continued to buck the trend yesterday, trading stronger than its emerging market peers, in a market that was hammered by a selloff in tech and commodities.
Here’s a roundup of the world’s top and most interesting headlines:
SA Business
Historic political party funding report is more laxity than revelation – Daily Maverick
FSCA warns public against ‘billionaires’ club’ director Mandla Lamba – Fin24
Steinhoff faces liquidation court challenge – SABC News
Global Business
Amazon Takes a Swipe at Musk as Satellite Feud Escalates – Daily Maverick
Tencent Leads $60 Billion Loss as Game Crackdown Expands – Bloomberg
Their Phone Chargers Rule Amazon, But Anker Has Bigger Ambitions – Bloomberg
Markets
Wall Street closes down, European stocks end little-changed – SABC News
Trading bitcoin is like trading stamps, Sweden’s central bank governor says – Business Insider
Bitcoin Tries to Bounce Back From Botched Rollout in El Salvador – Bloomberg Video
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