Management and unions in discussions following SAAT picket

Workers at SAA Technical (SAAT) held a demonstration on Monday 28 September after they were paid just 25% of their salaries. National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) national spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said officials were meeting with management to resolve the impasse and find a way forward. 

MANAGEMENT AND UNIONS AT SAAT DISCUSS A WAY FORWARD 

South African Airways (SAA) spokesperson Tlali Tlali confirmed that there was a demonstration at SAAT in Kempton Park on Monday. 

“All employees have been paid 25% for the month of September 2020. The matter is receiving attention between management and unions at SAAT,” said Tlali.  

He said a meeting took place on Monday and will continue today on Tuesday. “The outcomes will be known only after the meeting has ended,” he said. 

NUMSA SUPPORTS THE PICKET 

Numsa, on Monday, released a statement saying it supports the picket by workers at SAAT.  

“Today our members protested out of frustration because they were only paid 25% of their salary. This is after SAAT management ambushed workers last Friday where they were suddenly told that only 25% of their salary would be paid,” said Hlubi-Majola.  

Numsa said the act was in violation of a previous arrangement where SAAT management would top up workers’ salaries by 50%. 

“Employees at SAAT have been depending on the UIF Temporary Employee Relief Scheme (Ters) for the last four months because, like most companies in the aviation sector, the lockdown has meant that operations have been severely cut back. The agreement was that SAAT would top up the Ters payment by paying 50% of workers’ salaries,” said Hlubi-Majola.

Numsa, in its statement said the CEO of SAAT Adam Voss has been physically absent since early March and has been running the airline from his home country in Australia 

“We demand that Voss must take full responsibility for this crisis because he is the CEO and ultimately the buck stops with him. We demand to know where he is and why he has been allowed to run SAAT remotely from Australia,” it said. 

“SAAT is an aircraft maintenance entity which gets a lot of its revenue from SAA and the financial crisis at SAA is having a very negative impact on its business as is the travel ban caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. If SAAT collapses, it will be because the culture of mismanagement and corruption continues to be cancer within the organisation,” it added.