SAA claims vindication from Labour Court decisions
South African Airways (SAA), the State-owned national flag carrier, believes it has been vindicated by the Labour Court ruling on Monday regarding retrenchment processes at SAA and its subsidiary, SAA Technical (SAAT). SAAT undertakes aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul. The court ruled in favour of the companies.
The case saw a number of unions seeking to stop SAA and SAAT undertaking retrenchments, on the grounds that the companies had to comply with “fair procedure”. The main unions concerned were the Aviation Union of Southern Africa (AUSA), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), Solidarity and the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu).
These, and the other unions supporting them, took action against both SAA and SAAT and SAA’s recognised unions, the National Transport Movement (NTM), the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) and Uasa. “Whilst it was within the labour unions’ rights to approach the court, SAA feels it was a step [that was] completely unnecessary as the differences could have been resolved in a mutually constructive manner,” said the company in its press release.
Regarding SAA, the court pointed out that the company had extended its consultation period with the unions three times beyond the limit allowed for in the relevant legislation, amounting to about three-and-a-half months instead of the two months (60 days) found in the law. It found that SAA’s collective agreement with NTM, Sacca and Uasa was “valid and binding”. As a result, the attempt by the other unions to have this agreement set aside failed.
SAAT has no such collective agreement with any unions, “despite numerous attempts by SAAT to conclude such an agreement”. Nevertheless, the court found no grounds to intervene in the retrenchment process at the business. “The court’s dismissal of AUSA, Numsa, Satawu, Solidarity and Others’ application is indicative of the fact that processes of this nature can only be resolved with a commitment by all parties to joint consensus seeking,” affirmed SAA.
Comments
The
content
you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.
If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.
If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.
For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation