City Press reports that a SA Express board committee has approved a move to cut jobs at the struggling airline following a request made by acting boss Siza Mzimela.  

In a confidential report, dated 31 January and presented at a meeting of the remuneration and HR transformation committee, Mzimela sought and obtained approval to proceed with downsizing staff in terms of a “right-sizing initiative”.  “SA Express is not competitive in the market place and not optimally operating in regard to its income generation. To ensure operational efficiency, improved service delivery and profitability, redundancies and duplication must be identified and addressed,” Mzimela indicated.  By the end of January, the airline had a headcount of 822 employees and 10 aircraft, with a projection to have 15 aircraft by the end of this month.  Mzimela argued that “we are overstaffed in that our ratio of employee per aircraft is 56 compared with our competitor, Airlink, at 24.”  Part of cutting jobs would include closing stations at places where SA Express did not fly, such as George, Richards Bay and Durban.  Employees would be offered voluntary severance packages, but the focus would be to keep skilled, competent and performing employees.  If this failed, the airline would contemplate terminating employees in the corporate services department due to operational requirements.  Consultations were to be conducted with unions and the process would be facilitated by the CCMA.  SA Express’ acting general manager for human capital, Thuli Mpshe, said:  “The airline has not yet taken a definitive decision on its staffing levels.  Should it do that, SA Express will commit itself fully to all due labour relations processes.”

Read more of the City Press report by Msinsidi Fengu and Poloko Tau on this story at SA Labour News

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