Comair, which operates the British Airways franchise in South Africa, may have its wings clipped by the Government for failing to comply with laws aimed at increasing the number of black employees in its workforce.

The Department of Labour said the airline, which also runs the low-fare Kulula.com service, could become the first publicly traded company to be taken before the courts for breaching the employment equity provisions of Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) legislation.

The department said: “This is the result of continued non-compliance despite several warnings to correct the issue.” It added that the labour director-general had filed an application with the Johannesburg Labour Court on Monday.

The airline confirmed that it had received notification from the department of its intention.

In a statement to The Times, Comair said: “We don’t want to comment on the specifics of the allegations as it may jeopardise the current legal proceedings besides to reiterate the following: Over the past five years Comair has increased its representation of black employees from 29 per cent to 55 per cent, and employees from designated groups now represent 80 per cent of the workforce.

“This is despite the general shortage of pilots in the industry, of which approximately 7 per cent are black.

“The company continues to seek clarity on meeting the legislative expectations of the Department of Labour in order to meet its requirements on this aspect of employment equity.”

Industry sources said the charges include allegedly failing to prepare an employment equity plan and failing to appoint one or more senior managers to take responsibility for monitoring and implementing an employment equity plan from 2000 to last year.

The company, which is 12.9 per cent owned by British Airways, also allegedly failed to submit a report to the director-general on the first working day of October and submitted reports to the Department of Labour that were not based on any existing employment equity plan.

Graham Damant, a labour lawyer with the South African firm Bowman and Gilfillan, said: “These are very serious allegations and it would be very difficult for Comair to prove that they had implemented a plan. If there was a plan in place, it would have been submitted to the department.”

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