Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Post Retirment Medical Aid

To all BEMAWU Members and interested parties.

The SABC yesterday has lost another, very expensive battle in the Supreme Court of Appeal in respect of Post Retirement Medical Aid (PRMA).

The Coop-group (“the group”) won their case in the Appeal Court and the SABC were ordered to re-instate their Post retirement Medical Aid benefits. The court ordered the SABC to treat them “like any other SABC Pensioner.” The SABC thought they were smart and then gave notice to the group to terminate their
PRMA benefits as they did with you a few years ago when they gave you notice and informed you that you will have no PRMA benefits when you go on pension.

PRMA benefits are terms and conditions of employment.

The group referred the decision to the High Court, and won. The SABC appealed the matter, and lost. They then lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). Yesterday the SCA ruled that the SABC must pay PRMA benefits to the group until the day they die.

BEMAWU is the only union who has instituted legal action on behalf of its members in the High Court to re-instate the PRMA benefits of our members. The case will go to court in February next year. We need to finalize our summons. Please make sure there is a BEMAWU deduction on your payslip if you are a BEMAWU member. This is the only way to be sure you are a claimant in the matter and will benefit from a court decision in this regard. We will soon send out again personalized e-mails to again check your details. The list of applicants needs to finalized by the end of April 2009. If you are not on the list, you will in all probability not benefit from a ruling in this regard. Only the claimants listed will benefit. The SABC will save every sent it can (they will need it) and not extend the PRMA benefits to people who were not interested in challenging their decision in court.

We believe it will be a formality to win this case, as it has technically already been decided by the SCA.

BEMAWU cares for its members, and we do not hesitate to spend money to protect your rights.

Hannes du Buisson
BEMAWU President

headoffice@bemawu.org.za
Cell. 0829208669
Fax 0866715585

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Any feedback on yesterday's meeting, please???

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