Fin24 reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the SA Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) on Tuesday filed a joint urgent application at the Johannesburg Labour Court to stop the business rescue practitioners of South African Airways (SAA) from taking any steps to cuts jobs until they have complied with the provisions of the Labour Relations Act.  

The unions hope to be heard in court on Thursday.  This development came after the airline's business rescue practitioners announced last week that the carrier would be cancelling all of its domestic routes apart from Johannesburg to Cape Town.  Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola indicated that the unions were also seeking an order from the court that the practitioners must be directed to comply with the terms of the wage agreement which was concluded last year in the wake of a strike.  The agreement, which was signed before the business rescue process commenced, mandated that workers facing retrenchment must be placed in a training layoff scheme.  Under that scheme, workers facing layoffs would be paid 75% of their salaries by a Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) as they learnt new skills.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Fin24

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