'SAA paid no-strike bonuses'

Johannesburg - On Thursday it was revealed that SAA had in recent weeks paid bonuses of R2 500 to members of the Aviation Industry Workers' Union (AIWU) to reward them for not participating in the strike.

This could result in the airline having to pay the strikers the same amount, because it is not permissible to discriminate against strikers in this manner.

The SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) got hold of correspondence about these payments and confronted the airline's negotiator on Wednesday evening during discussions on ending the strike. Satawu's 4 000-odd SAA members have been out on strike for three weeks.

"They admitted it. The negotiations degenerated into an extremely heated session during which management was accused of attempting to break the strike while negotiations were in process to resolve the issues that had led to the strike in the first place," said Randall Howard, general secretary of the union.

The strike ended on Thursday after SAA undertook to phase out all its labour brokers and review the "retention bonuses" of the 126 members of top management - including the dismissed chief executive Khaya Ngqula - by the department of public enterprises.

These "immoral and unethical bonuses" for which R63m had been set aside, raised the workers fury and led to the strike.

"They were paid while other employees were making enormous sacrifices to rescue the airline. One of these was a historic wage freeze and a sacrifice of salary increases," Harwood explained.

The agreement provides for the termination of all labour-broker services to SAA. Where possible, workers of affected contractors will be employed by SAA.

The union believes that a labour broker, Quest, entered into contracts with SAA and that Ngqula and his wife had interests in that business.

- Sake24.com

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