Denel ordered to pay outstanding salaries by Friday
The Labour Court has ruled that state-owned arms manufacturer Denel must pay workers their outstanding salaries by no later than Friday.
Court action was instituted by trade unions Solidarity and UASA after Denel failed to pay May, June and July salaries.
The cash-strapped company has been in a financial hole for some time.
Solidarity’s Helgard Cronjé says the union welcomes the decision.
“Denel has not paid full salaries for the month of May, June and July. They only paid partial salaries during that period and they also did not pay the statutory contractual monies that is due to employees, basically the UIF, the SARS deductions, union subscriptions and medical aid.
“Our court application basically addressed those deficiencies.”
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Cronjé says he’s not confident Denel will have the money to pay.
“They haven’t had money so we doubt that they will have the money to pay by Friday.
“The Department of Public Enterprises should also pay their part as a shareholder and act responsibly in that regard.”
He adds that some of their members have had to rely on food parcels and coupons during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It’s been bad and it’s not only the poor employees or the lower earning employees that feel the heat of this. It’s also the engineers, the technicians that are suffering.”
Listen to Cronjé below:
