High stakes for all in SAA strike
Publish date: 20 November 2019
Issue Number: 313
Diary: Legalbrief Workplace
Category: Labour
There is more at stake in the stand-off between SAA and workers than wage negotiations, writes Legalbrief. Carol Paton as writing in a BusinessLIVE report notes, it is the government that holds the purse strings and the SAA strike is essentially over government policy. She writes that it is Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and Finance Minister Tito Mboweni that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) really wants to meet at the negotiating table. But if Gordhan steps into the fray, like he did over Eskom’s wage negotiation in 2018, any prospect that SAA will ever become a fit-for-purpose airline run on commercial principles and therefore an attractive proposition for a buyer will be killed off immediately, she says. So, Paton argues, while Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim has a lot at stake in this fight, so does the government. At risk is not just SAA’s viability but the credit rating of the country, which depends very much on the government’s ability to demonstrate its commitment to reform, particularly of state-owned enterprises, and the wage structures of those employed in the public sector.
But Gordhan has said that no further financial resources can be advanced to the cash-strapped flag carrier, after meeting with representatives of striking unions, Fin24 reports. In a statement on Tuesday, Gordhan said the government was facing ‘severe fiscal constraints’. ‘Even if there were funds available, there is no legal mechanism to provide funding to SAA in the current year.’ The Minister said the meetings, held at the request of the unions, were an opportunity for an ‘open and frank exchange of information’. He added that the government was committed to saving the airline, and urged the unions to work with the airline’s management to ‘find a speedy resolution to the impasse’. Gordhan said the meetings did not delve into the ‘intricacies of the salary negotiations in detail’, as the negotiations were being handled by the SAA. Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola is quoted in the report as saying the unions gave the department a ‘framework for ending the strike and a strategy to save SAA and recover its finances’.
Numsa plans to bring SA’s aviation sector to its knees as it moves to extend its strike at SAA to the entire aviation industry, says a BusinessLIVE report. SAA is losing R52m a day as a result of the strike but a secondary strike as threatened by Numsa would have a significantly more detrimental effect on SA’s aviation industry and the economy as a whole. After wage talks between Numsa, the SA Cabin Crew Association and SAA collapsed at the weekend, the union on Sunday called on its members to join in a secondary strike across the aviation sector. Hlubi-Majola said SAA’s refusal to implement various cost-saving measures was proof that it wanted the airline to collapse. Consultation on this process was under way with various entities including Mango Airlines, SA Express, FlySafair, Comair, the Airports Company SA, the SA Civil Aviation Authority and other suppliers and service providers to the industry.
SAA’s nightmarish financial predicament could be attributed in part to the exorbitant salaries of some of its senior executives, a Sunday Independent report quotes insiders as saying. Insisting that the proposed retrenchments could have been avoided, the insiders said the cash-strapped airline recruited some senior managers at double the salaries of their predecessor. According to a source inside SAA, at SAA Technical (SAAT) alone, the salaries of CEO Adam Voss and general managers under him have doubled since the New Zealand national took over in June. But, the report says, SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali defended the remunerations of the managers. He said the salaries were deserved and those in the positions were working to turn things around within the organisation.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has urged all SAA employees to return to work, saying SA and its economy can ill-afford another blow to the public purse. Polity reports that IFP spokesperson on public enterprises Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi said while the party fully supported the right of workers to strike, in this case, it urged workers to ‘do what is right for the country’, and to ‘act patriotically’. Buthelezi explained that halting all operations at the airline appears to be yet another case of a state-owned entity trying to squeeze out more money from the National Treasury. The IFP called on all stakeholders, in particular the leadership of Numsa, to find an amicable solution as swiftly as possible.
Cosatu is crying foul that the ANC had failed to communicate the impending retrenchments at SAA. According to a Polity report, Cosatu's affiliate union, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, applied for an urgent interdict to halt the airlines' bid to retrench almost 1 000 workers. SAA announced its intention to retrench 945 workers on Monday of last week. The announcement came shortly after a two-day meeting of the alliance council comprising the top six of Cosatu, the ANC and the South African Communist Party.
SAA acting CEO Zukisa Ramasia said the national carrier would never jeopardise the safety of its passengers or staff, after striking unions claimed flying with the airline would be a safety risk. Fin24 reports that Numsa and the South African Cabin Crew Association urged South Africans not to fly with South African Airways on Sunday afternoon, following the national carrier’s announcement that international flights would be reinstated. Ramasia urged the unions to retract the statements about safety at SAA's operations being compromised. She said pilots were on duty and called for an end to intimidation of working staff.
SAA says it will approach the Labour Court on an urgent basis to interdict the additional demands tabled by striking unions. Ramasia is quoted in a Business Day report as saying the demands such as those pertaining to the current restructuring of the airline, were not part of the initial dispute with the SA Cabin Crew Association and Numsa. She said the additional demands were not procedural. The airline is also contesting unions demand relating to the insourcing of a variety of services rendered to the aviation industry. Ramasia said they wanted the Labour Court to also address the unions' ‘non-compliance with picketing rules’. The unions have been picketing outside SAA's Airways Park headquarters in Kempton Park since Friday.
