Today's Labour News

Moneyweb reports that employees of SA Airways (SAA) who applied for voluntary severance packages (VSPs) can expect to receive their monies by the end of January, according to unions at the airline.  

The National Transport Movement (NTM) and the SA Transport & Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) have told their members that the R10.5 billion required to fund the SAA business rescue plan and to pay for the VSPs has now been made available to the airline’s business rescue practitioners (BRPs) from the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE).  This has yet to be confirmed by government.  In a communication to union members last week, NTM President Mashudu Raphetha said the VSP payments could be expected “within a few days”.  Satawu’s Nelson Lamityi also confirmed that the VSP funds were expected to be disbursed by the end of January.  Satawu further expects the BRPs to hand over the reins to the airline’s interim board once the rescue process has been concluded.  By September last year more than 3,000 of SAA’s 5,000 employees had applied for the VSPs, which are expected to cost the airline around R2.2 billion.  The airline has already received R1.5 billion from the DPE that has been used for the payments to employees who accepted the three-month back-pay deal.  The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the SA Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) initially rejected the offer but have taken the DPE and the BRPs to court and demanded that their members be paid the same funds as other SAA employees.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thando Maeko at Moneyweb <https://www.moneyweb.co.za/news/companies-and-deals/saa-voluntary-severance-packages-payments-expected-end-of-january/>

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