Saa strike
Court ruling on SAA retrenchments a ‘travesty of justice’, says Numsa
Numsa and Sacca, the two key unions at the airline, approached the court to apply for an interdict against retrenchments without sufficient consultation.
The union approached the Labour Court on Tuesday seeking to interdict the airline’s business rescue practitioners from implementing job cuts.
The travel agency announced last week that it reached the decision after its preferred travel insurance provider and their underwriters were no longer willing to cover the airline under an insolvency benefit.
The workers' unions says the current board and senior management of SAA knew the dire straits the company was in prior to the strikes and should take responsibility for it.
Hollard Group took the decision earlier this month after a crippling strike started at SAA and the airline warned it might not be able to pay salaries.
The union said workers were assured that the rest of this month’s pay would be made on Monday.
SAA was on Wednesday evening expected to submit further information to Parliament’s finance watchdog on why it failed to submit its annual financial statements for two years.
The National Assembly held a debate of national importance to discuss the recent week-long strike at the struggling airline.
SAA workers have returned to work on Saturday after unions signed a 5.9% wage agreement with the embattled airline on Friday.
Services are expected to return to normal after unions signed a 5.9% wage agreement with the carrier, after initially demanding an 8% increase, ending the wage strike.
The team will need to find 2.1% for salaries after unions agreed on a 5.9% pay increase retrospective to April this year.
It also said mediation will continue to assist the parties to work through some of the identified underlying issues and challenges.
The union's president Mashudu Raphetha said that the wage deal was subject to SAA securing additional funds and that the salary increase would start from February next year.
The union confirmed it had served court papers on SAA and Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, asking the High Court in Johannesburg to give the go-ahead for business rescue.
SAA has advised workers to make arrangements with their banks because it is not guaranteed that they will be paid.
A screenshot of what appears to be an internal correspondence about delays in the payment of salaries went viral on Twitter on Thursday afternoon.
SAA said it would suspend all flights between Johannesburg and Hong Kong from 23 November up to and including 14 December.
Strike-hit SAA may not be able to pay salaries this month with the crippling seven-day-old strike having pushed the national carrier to the brink of financial collapse.
Numsa's Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said unions would not sit back and watch as workers were used as sacrifices for SAA management's failures and corruption.