saa thumb medium95 76Moneyweb reports that SAA Technical has informed workers that the travel bans and the nationwide lockdown have left the aircraft maintenance entity’s finances in dire straits, with just enough to pay only 50% of some employee net salaries and full medical and pension contributions.  

Only employees with full leave credits and those who had been working during the lockdown period would receive 50% of their salaries.  Employees who do not have leave credits will not be paid at all or will receive partial payment based on the number of leave days they have.  For those employees, the company would only cover the admin and risk contributions for the pension fund and, while medical aid payments will be made on their behalf, the money would be recovered from their future earnings.  The loss of earnings for all employees will be partially topped up from the Temporary Employee Relieve Scheme (Ters), once received from the Unemployment Insurance Fund.  But, according to SAA Technical’s general manager Vincent Matlala, they were still locked in talks with organised labour and these discussions would continue on Thursday.  In an update sent to employees following discussions with labour, where a question was asked about whether employees would receive the balance of their salaries at a later stage, Matlala said that the current cuts would be “on a salary sacrifice basis”.


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