Engineering News reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the SA Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) have jointly expressed support for the workers of financially embattled state-owned regional airline SA Express.  

The workers organised a protest march, without any assistance from the two unions, to demand that the government intervene in SA Express and pay the workers’ salaries.  SA Express is currently under provisional liquidation and its employees have not been paid since the end of February.  The only support they have received was a R7,000 payout from the UIF’s Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters), which was lower than the salaries of most of the workers involved.  “This payout was only possible because as unions we pressurised the Department of Public Enterprises [DPE] and Treasury to make these monies available, a decision which was not supported, because the entity was facing liquidation.  But eventually, they relented and money was paid to employees,” the unions advised in their statement.  Numsa and Sacca also reported that they have actively been seeking ways to save the airline and have held discussions with creditors, to turn debt owed by the airline into equity in it.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News

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