The business rescue practitioners of SAA have told employees that they intend to expedite retrenchments at the troubled airline.
In a meeting with employee representatives on Tuesday, Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana said retrenchments were now under consideration but the company could not afford the mandatory 60-day consultation process, prescribed by the Labour Relations Act.
“They have asked for an expedited process as they are saying that their cash will be finished by the end of March,” said Mashudu Raphetha, president of union National Transport Movement (NTM).
“As NTM, we said that we don’t have a problem as long as the process is still mediated by the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] and as long as pilots are also considered for retrenchments.”
In December the airline went into business rescue after several years of heavy losses that necessitated perpetual bailouts from the state. It recently received a R3.5bn loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa , which enabled it to continue flying, while business-rescue practitioners prepare to restructure the company into what is hoped will be a sustainable business.
Continued bailouts of state-owned entities have been flagged by ratings agencies as a major threat to the country's economy.
SA Cabin Crew Association’s (Sacaa) Zazi Sibanyoni-Mugambi said the union, as well as National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) Africa, with which it is in alliance, had strongly objected to the prospect of retrenchments in the absence of the business plan for the new SAA. The plan, which the business rescue practitioners must present to creditors, is due to be completed by the end of February.
“We questioned the decision to retrench before they finalise the plan. We need to see the plan first,” she said.
Unions embarked on a eight day strike in November over wages.
No numbers were put on the table before the strike and the company being placed in business rescue, but management had indicated that 944 jobs out of the airline’s total complement of just more than 5,000 would need to be cut.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said the business rescue practitioner had indicated at Tuesday’s meeting that to secure future funding “a drastic reduction of headcount” was necessary.
“They said that they want to reduce staff by much more than the 944 workers who were going to be retrenched last year. The funders wanted us to agree to this process without divulging any details of what the plan for SAA will be,” she said.
Hlubi-Majola said Numsa and Sacaa had asked to meet the funders and the creditors to “ensure we are all on the same page”.
“We think it is very unfair that workers should agree to a plan when there is no detail going forward. They are asking us to accept retrenchments, outside the Section 189 process but they don’t want to tell us the plan,” she said.
Numsa was also angry that management had reneged on an agreement that was reached in 2019 with SAA during wage negotiations, in which the company would make use of the government training layoff scheme, she said.
The training layoff scheme is administered by the CCMA and the department of labour and provides sponsored training opportunities for retrenched workers.
In a separate development, DA MP Alf Lees said on Wednesday that he had received confirmation from Matuson and Dongwana that they had held discussions with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) “to seek out solutions to alleviating financial challenges to both [SAA] and its employees”.
“The DA is of the view that these discussions were completely out of order and the UIF should have shown the SAA business rescue practitioners the door. There can be absolutely no special deal between the bankrupt SAA and the UIF in order for the national carrier to get access to the UIF’s coffers.
“These funds are held by the UIF on behalf of the hard-working employees and employers of SA who have diligently put these monies aside,” Lees said in a statement.
Lees said the DA had written to labour minister Thulas Nxesi to obtain reassurance that there will be no raid on the UIF to prop up SAA.
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