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Business rescue practitioners want SAA job cuts to be fast-tracked

Details

saa thumb medium95 76BL Premium reports that the business rescue practitioners (BRPs) of South African Airways (SAA) have told employees that they intend to expedite retrenchments at the troubled national carrier.  

In a meeting with employee representatives on Tuesday, Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana said retrenchments were now under consideration, but the company could not afford the mandatory 60-day consultation process, prescribed by the Labour Relations Act.  Mashudu Raphetha of the National Transport Movement (NTM) related as follows:  “They have asked for an expedited process as they are saying that their cash will be finished by the end of March.  As NTM, we said that we don’t have a problem as long as the process is still mediated by the CCMA and as long as pilots are also considered for retrenchments.”  But, the SA Cabin Crew Association’s (Sacaa’s) Zazi Sibanyoni-Mugambi said the union, as well as National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), with which it is in alliance, had strongly objected to the prospect of retrenchments in the absence of the business plan for the new SAA.  The plan, which the BRPs must present to creditors, is due to be completed by the end of February.  No numbers were put on the table on Tuesday.  Before the recent strike at SAA and the company being placed in business rescue, management had indicated that 944 jobs out of a total complement of just more than 5,000 would need to be cut.  Numsa’s Phakamile Hlubi-Majola reported that the BRPs said at the meeting that they wanted to reduce staff by much more than the 944 workers who were going to be retrenched last year.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Carol Paton at BusinessLive (paywall access only)


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