Saftu ‘appalled' at possible Edcon liquidation
The South African Federation of
Trade unions (SAFTU) has expressed its shock at the prospect of the imminent
liquidation of Edcon.
It was reported on Sunday that the retail giant warned that over 100,000 jobs are on the line.
Edcon owns Edgars, Jet and CNA.
"It would be the single biggest loss of jobs in the country's history," says Saftu's spokesperson Patrick Craven.
Craven says the country already has the world's sixth highest rate of unemployment could well move up to first place should this liquidation happen.
He warns the impact on all those dependent of the workers' incomes it would mean over a million more South Africans being plunged into deep poverty.
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"No less serious would be the negative effect on the economy; just when it has crawled out of a technical recession, it would face sliding back into a deeper slump. Even the big business leaders have woken up to the devastating impact of this," he says.
Craven says the biggest reason for the collapse is that fewer citizens are able to buy goods on sale because they have very little money to spend.
"As Saftu has said again and again, unemployment is not only a human tragedy for the workers and their families who are directly affected, but the economy as a whole."
Saftu says it will add the Edcon crisis to the agenda during its three-day shut-downs early in 2019.
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