SAA denies wage negotiations deadlock

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On Tuesday, unions in wage negotiations with SAA said they had revised upwards their wage demands from single to double digits after the airline's board chair Dudu Myeni said on Friday SAA was financially sound. "This company has money, it will continue to operate without government guarantees in future. Our aircraft are always full," Myeni said.

Her remarks were in apparent response to an earlier statement by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, that SAA would not be granted any further government guarantees to raise loan funding until a new board and management were appointed.

In February last year, SAA received a R6.5bn government guarantee from the Treasury, taking to R14.5bn the amount of guarantees given to the airline since 2007. The guarantee was needed to enable SAA to sign off its financial statements for 2013-14 as a going concern. SAA is now in need of another government guarantee to sign off its financial statements for 2014-15.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the unions said wage negotiations had now reached a deadlock, the dispute would be headed for conciliation, and that strike action was a possibility. But on Wednesday, SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said the airline had engaged four unions in "good faith bargaining" from the beginning of negotiations in April. He said there was no deadlock in negotiations.

"There are some unfortunate dynamics that have a potential to derail negotiations which up to this point have been averted," said Tlali. "As a responsible employer, SAA has not declared a deadlock on negotiations and as such is open to engaging with all parties with a view to reaching an amicable agreement. The unions have not declared a dispute on the matter yet."

Tlali said if the unions wanted to add new information to the bargaining process they would have to use a proper forum where all parties would be able to discuss issues to reach a settlement. "It is not advisable to have negotiations of this nature with the media as an intermediary. We remain optimistic that industrial action can be averted and is not on the horizon at this stage," he said.

Uasa spokesman Willie van Eden said on Wednesday the unions informed SAA management at a meeting on Friday that wage demands had been revised upwards following the chairwoman's comments. Van Eden also said it would be proper for SAA management to call on the unions to engage. "We made it clear at the last meeting where management stated its offer that we did not agree with their offer." He said the union was always open to further negotiations and "would never close the door" until the "final moment".

The four unions had been considering an offer of a 6% basic salary increase, a 7% increase on the employee housing subsidy, and 7% on the medical contribution, but have revised their offer to an 11% basic salary increase.

Source: BDpro