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BL Premium reports that in what it termed a victory for workers, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) announced on Friday that it had received correspondence from Comair that the flight operator was formally withdrawing a notice to reduce worker benefits and conditions of employment.
According to the union, under the terms of the so-called Section 189A notice issued by Comair on 1 March 2022, the salaries of some 1,300 employees would have been cut by 15% and the medical aid benefit reduced. Numsa said it had objected to the Section 189A notice because Comair employees had already made “huge sacrifices” in helping to turn the company around. “[Employees] have endured more than a year on reduced salaries — their salaries were cut by at least a 30%, and all benefits have been slashed. This is why we welcome news that Comair has decided to withdraw the notice,” Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim stated. In a letter to the CCMA, Comair’s Barnett Marillier stated that “[a]fter much deliberation on the issue of operational restructure and with due consideration of legal advice obtained, while we still need to restructure the conditions of employment that places the organisation at risk, we will seek to explore other avenues of achieving the same saving, which may include the collective bargaining process. We therefore withdraw the section 189A application … and will no longer continue to consult on this issue in this forum.” Jim said Numsa would now ready itself for wage talks “with the employer which are coming up soon”. Comair operates domestic flights by British Airways (BA) and Kulula.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Read too, Comair withdraws Section 189 notice, says Numsa, at Engineering News
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page