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Johannesburg - The Competition Tribunal on Thursday approved the proposed merger between financial services groups Metropolitan Holdings [JSE:MET] and Momentum Group, on condition that no retrenchments would take place in South Africa for two years after the merger implementation date.
This condition does not apply to senior management of merged entity MMI Holdings.
The decision follows a hearing before the tribunal in which the merging parties proposed to limit the number of merger related job losses to 1 000 in the first three years after implementing the merger.
The merging parties also offered to provide support, including core skills training to affected unskilled and semi-skilled employees, outplacement support and counselling, and to use their best endeavours to redeploy affected employees within the merged entity.
The Competition Commission had accepted the merging parties' undertakings, which improved on the merging parties' original undertakings, and recommended to the tribunal that the merger be approved subject to the implementation of these support measures.
The National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) however, which represents about 6% of Momentum's employees, argued that the merging parties had failed to properly justify the need for any job losses and had not substantiated how they arrived at the 1 000 retrenchments figure.
The union requested that the tribunal prohibit the merger or approve it without any job losses.
This condition does not apply to senior management of merged entity MMI Holdings.
The decision follows a hearing before the tribunal in which the merging parties proposed to limit the number of merger related job losses to 1 000 in the first three years after implementing the merger.
The merging parties also offered to provide support, including core skills training to affected unskilled and semi-skilled employees, outplacement support and counselling, and to use their best endeavours to redeploy affected employees within the merged entity.
The Competition Commission had accepted the merging parties' undertakings, which improved on the merging parties' original undertakings, and recommended to the tribunal that the merger be approved subject to the implementation of these support measures.
The National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) however, which represents about 6% of Momentum's employees, argued that the merging parties had failed to properly justify the need for any job losses and had not substantiated how they arrived at the 1 000 retrenchments figure.
The union requested that the tribunal prohibit the merger or approve it without any job losses.
