THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said yesterday it would picket outside Comair premises today in support of its call for the immediate resignation of chief executive Glen Orsmond and the end of the business rescue process.
Numsa met with Comair’s management yesterday to discuss the fate of the airline after Comair grounded its operations, which account for about 40 percent of all domestic flights, from June 1.
The airline, which operates British Airways and kulula.com, cited a cash-flow crisis as the reason for its financial distress, partly brought on by high fuel prices.
Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said the meeting with the chief executive yesterday “left us with more questions than answers. Unfortunately, the meeting was very frustrating because the CEO was at times evasive or unwilling to respond directly to certain questions.”
Numsa has some 700 members at the company. Jim said they had asked whether employees would be paid their salaries during the period of the suspension, which management would not confirm.
“We asked how long the suspension of operations would be in place. They could not say because it depends on whether the funding could be raised by the BRPs (business rescue practitioners),” said Jim.
The airline would also not disclose the amount of funds it would require to be financially sustainable because “they say that information is confidential”. The airline would also not provide timelines to raise the funding for the airline.
“We have repeatedly called for the immediate resignation of Glen Orsmond due to his complete incompetence and lack of vision. Under the poor leadership of Orsmond and the BRPs, the airline has gone from one crisis to another,” said Jim.
The grounding and suspension of the airline has also left thousands of passengers deeply inconvenienced and the management handled the situation very poorly, said Jim.
“We also have questions about the role of the BRPs which have been in charge for almost two years. They were paid exorbitantly and were seemingly unable to foresee this financial hurdle,” said Jim.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE