Publications
Partners
Cape Town - SAA’s decision to implement a turnaround strategy, which involves cutting flights has come under fire from the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa).
"The airlines plans will inevitably result in job losses and it unilaterally made this decision without consulting any of the trade unions," Numsa said in a statement on Sunday.
SAA is on course to cut flights by 23% by December 2017. This was revealed in a presentation to the standing committee of finance in Parliament on Wednesday.
The beleaguered airline, which has already removed one narrow-body aircraft from its fleet, will take down four more by December.
This would result in an overall flight reduction of 23%, with a 37% reduction in domestic flights, an 11% reduction in regional flights and a 4% reduction in international flights.
Numsa is of the view that the decision amounts to an attack on workers, which the trade union believes, have been at the forefront of exposing rampant looting at the national carrier.
"The management at SAA has been doing everything possible to protect senior executives from taking responsibility for corruption that they have even resorted to union bashing," it claimed.
"They are systematically punishing unions like the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA) and NUMSA for exposing the rot. Some of our members have been suspended and dismissed for exposing corrupt tendencies, but they have failed to act against managers who are looting from the airline."
The trade union pointed out that South African Airways Technical (SAAT), which maintains and services the fleets of the national airline as well as several other carriers, has deliberately delayed the implementation of a Labour Court order to discipline executives who have been implicated in allegations of shady dealings and looting at the airline.
"They are trying to buy time by appealing the order."
Numa vowed to use all the weapons at their disposal to root out the cancer of corruption which it said is threatening the survival of SAA.
SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE UPDATE: Get Fin24's top morning business news and opinions in your inbox.
Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: Fin24’s top stories
