Unions want to see audits

The Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa) is threatening to take the Gautrain operator to the Constitutional Court for allegedly refusing to disclose its financial statements.

This comes as the two-week strike by Gautrain workers ended yesterday after the majority of workers accepted a one-year wage offer of 8% increments made by the Bombela Concession Company, the operator of the high-speed commuter rail system.

Dennis George, general secretary of Fedusa, said it was “constitutionally unfair” for Bombela to not disclose its financials during wage negotiations so that unions could see how much profit Gautrain was making.

Speaking outside the Gautrain depot in Midrand, George said Bombela was being disingenuous in arguing that it was prevented from releasing its financial statements by the agreements it has with financial institutions and other social partners.

“We know that in any company, audited financial statements are an important document and we have the right to study the document and on the basis of that we can formulate our demands.

“We also have the right to see how much management are getting from these deals and how much they pay workers at the bottom of the company.

“If a company is bargaining in bad faith, where they don’t want to give us the audited financial statements, that ties us down.

“We don’t know exactly how much profit is being made.

“That is the reason why we are prepared to take it to the Constitutional Court because it is critical for us to respect the rights of workers.”

Gautrain spokesperson Kesagee Nayager said Bombela had no obligation to make its financial statement public as it is a private company.

Nayager added that the company respected the law of the country and “will comply fully with the requirements of the law” if the matter goes to court.

“It is also important to point out that [United National Transport Union] Untu only requested the company’s financial statement during the final round of mediated negotiations that took place on July 27, after the strike notice was already issued,” said Nayager.

“This indicates that Untu’s allegation that it embarked on strike action because the company refused to avail its financial statement was in fact untrue.

“It was merely a tactic to justify the reason for the strike, which ultimately was based on an unrealistic and unreasonable demand.”

Meanwhile, Gauteng MEC for transport Ismail Vadi welcomed the wage agreement reached between Bombela and Untu ending the two-week strike.

He said the provincial government hoped that the situation and Gautrain’s operations would return to normal soon.