The Star reports that the practice of companies dismissing employees through alleged fraudulent liquidation scams is playing itself out at the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council in Johannesburg.

In what could be deemed a “David vs Goliath” case, 34 former employees of Unique Storage Equipment in Alberton, Ekurhuleni, are taking on Tim van Wyk for supposedly liquidating his company and firing his employees, only to re-register it using another trading name – allegedly with the same assets as the “liquidated” firm.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa has asserted that the scam of liquidating companies in order to get rid of employees is common within the metal and engineering industry.

Speaking on behalf of the 34 workers, Tumi Steenkamp said that in June last year, Van Wyk told employees he was undergoing voluntary liquidation and would be retrenching staff.

Steenkamp said workers “smelt a rat” after realising their former employer was allegedly still trading under another name – Algoran Alrode Properties. A default judgment was issued by bargaining counmcil commissioner Mohamed Raffee in February, where Van Wyk was ordered to reinstate the employees and pay them their salaries, backdated to when they were dismissed.

A variation ruling was handed down by Raffee in March, where USE, which was the first respondent in the default judgment, was changed and referred to as Algoran Alrode Properties after it emerged that Unique Storage had been liquidated and Van Wyk’s legal representatives wanted the default judgment rescinded.

However, delivery notes seen by Independent Media – dated October 2017 – seem to show how deliveries were being made under the Unique Storage trading name, even though the company had supposedly undergone voluntary liquidation, which was confirmed by a company search.

The former employees brought an application to have some of these delivery notes included as evidence that Unique Storage was still trading.

Raffee ruled last month that these documents should be admitted. The workers believe this will strengthen their case for reinstatement and reimbursement.

The original of this report by Khaya Koko is on page 1 of The Star of 12 December 2017

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