To sign or not to sign: Deadline looms for SAA employees to accept retrenchment agreements

Workers at South African Airways have until the end of business day on Friday, 1 May 2020, to decide whether or not they’ll be accepting retrenchment packages that have been offered by the national carrier’s business rescue practitioners.

In a letter, the practitioners, Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana said the workers had until the said date to sign a section 189 termination of employment letter or there is no turning back for the troubled airline.

They also maintain there is simply no money available to carry on honouring the obligations of SAA to its employees beyond 30 April 2020

“Accordingly, the wind-down process is dependent upon employees accepting the termination of their employment timeously by mutual consent,” the practitioners said.

“Given the fact that the practitioners have no further funding, the practitioners have considered whether they can develop a business rescue plan which secures a better return for SAA’s creditors than would result from its immediate liquidation,” reads the letter.

“The lockdown remains in place and SAA has no funds to continue trading and cannot pay a significant salary bill beyond April 2020”

Economic cluster Chairperson: All avenues have to be examined

The chairperson of the economic cluster in parliament, Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane said regardless, the airline’s fate has not been sealed and a decision is still to be made by Cabinet.

“It is not yet finalised what will happen to SAA. Once we have looked at all the avenues we can decide on a strategy to present to Cabinet for a decision”, Kubayi-Ngubane said during a media briefing held by SA Tourism.

“Government continues to interact with unions in this regard after they (unions) raised questions on how the business rescue practitioners of SAA are conducting themselves”

“The BRPs are looking for more money from government but against the backdrop of the current environment we asked them to go back and look again at what they can do with resources available,” said the minister.

Numsa and SACCA threaten court action

At the same time, National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) have said they are prepared to go the legal route to keep their jobs.

“This is why as Numsa and SACCA, we are left with no option but to continue with legal action in order to apply for an application to remove the business rescue practitioners and we’re calling on government, particularly the Department of Public Enterprises in the interest of SAA, to join us in the application to defend the airline and turnaround the future of the airline and save jobs”, said Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.