SAA informed staff on Friday last week that they will be implementing a retrenchment process. According to Johan Botha,head of the Professional Industry at Solidarity, the company has not yet sent a section 189 notice to Solidarity and therefore it is currently not clear how many employees will be affected by the process. “We requested the company in terms of section 189 of the Labour Relations Act to provide us with more information regarding the process in writing. We expect to have more details by Wednesday,” said Botha.
Botha said it seems that, at this stage, SAA is willing to consult with trade unions over the possible layoffs. “We trust the company will be upfront about the ultimate goal of the process during the consultations. Our main goal throughout the negotiations will be to reduce the impact of the layoffs on our members,” added Botha.
In response SAA admitted it is looking into the possibility of making staff cuts. “The reality is that SAA’s staff headcount grew over the past few years beyond sustainable levels as losses continued to impair business stability,” spokesperson Tlali Tlali told Fin24 on Monday. “The reduction in headcount will be a consultative process with all stakeholders in the company. At this point there is no indication of actual figure on the number heads that could be affected.”
Earlier this year SAA begged for an additional R6.488bn in state guarantees (read tax payers’ money). This will take funding pledges from the government to R14.4bn.
As for SAA’s race policies, Solidarity has already filed court papers with the Labour Court in Johannesburg for an interdict against South African Airways Technical (SAAT), the technical division of SAA. It is to prevent SAAT from filling four senior aviation technician jobs (senior Licensed Aviation Technicians).
As we reported earlier, SAA also do not want any white male pilots. As far as two years ago they have stopped recruiting white males to be trained as pilots. We don’t care who fly their planes – they can be pink as far as we are concerned. But we do need to know they are the best.
