South African Airways (SAA) said on Wednesday that they had successfully argued at the Labour Court to have an interim order granted during the cabin crew meal strike as a final order.
About a week ago SAA cabin crew members embarked on a one day strike because they felt the $130 they were receiving for meals was too little. They wanted the airline to increase the amount to $170.
“Whilst we appreciate that the appeal by South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) has been overturned and that an interim order has been made final, we do not see this as a matter of winners and losers,” said SAA spokesperson, Tlali Tlali, in a statement.
The strike action led to a number of SAA flight disruption and cancellations, leaving many passengers stranded at various airports.
SAA approached the Labour Court and argued successfully to have SACCA and its members interdicted from embarking on industrial action and declaring the industrial action an unprotected strike.
This was after the labour union appealed to the court against the interim order granted in favour of the airline.
“For us the key objective remains focusing on those things we must immediately pay attention to, so that the company remains in business and its employees looked after. Those things include exploring avenues that will lead to a resolution of disputed issues between the airline and the affected employees,” Tlali said.
“Our cabin crew members are key to the successful and safe operation of this airline, and as customer-facing ambassadors their work satisfaction and morale remain high priority. In addition, we must ensure business continuity through stable operations and provide our customers with a sense of travel certainty.”
SAA Board of Directors reiterated that they remained committed towards supporting management and the labour union to find lasting solutions to issues under dispute and that a mechanism was proposed for consideration by SACCA to have a facilitated dispute resolution process during the next two months.
“We are inviting SACCA back to the negotiating table as soon as possible and would like parties to have open minds when deliberating and considering options. It is in the interests of all parties to find lasting solutions to the issues in dispute. We remain confident that a final solution to this matter will be found in the coming days,” said Tlali.
SAA said that the financial sustainability of the airline remained of paramount importance to the Board and Executive of SAA and the programme to ensure that the airline’s financial situation was turned around was in full steam to ensure that SAA returned to profitability once again.