BusinessLive reports that employees at South African Airways (SAA) will be paid 50% of their November salaries and 13th cheques on Wednesday.  

The troubled state airline said in a notice that it intended to pay the balance of the salaries on Monday.  “As at the issuing of this communication, the necessary funding to enable SAA to pay salaries has not been finalised.  However, SAA understands that employees have to fulfil their financial commitments.  In the interim, our cash position has improved so we can pay the salaries as indicated,” the notice indicated.  SAA, which last week suffered the effect of a strike that grounded operations and reduced revenue, has been unable to raise working capital to fund operations.  While the Treasury has provided a R5.5bn bailout, that is strictly tied to the repayment of short-term debt.  The Treasury also agreed to repay R9.2bn of historic debt over the next three years.  But to continue operations, the airline needs to raise at least R2bn from commercial banks for which it requires a full loan guarantee from the government.  This has not been forthcoming.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Carol Paton at BusinessLive

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page