SAA in Business Rescue?

[ian16th]

But SAA have been a drain on the Tax Payer for years.

Back under the NP I would never fly with them if there was an alternative.

[Capetonian]

https://www.news24.com/fin24/Companies/ ... n-20200616

In the view of economist Peter Attard Montalto, the rescue plan proposes a broadly similar airline in terms of routes to the current embattled one, with government having to "backstop" the "new" airline with new money if no equity partner can be found before July 15.

"It still shows them barely breaking even in the medium run, even with substantially reduced headcount and further bailouts and it is not clear at this stage if there is any commitment from National Treasury on funding this, which could leave this dead in the water - we will have to watch next week's emergency budget closely," said Montalto.

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

The saga continues; https://www.news24.com/fin24/companies/ ... y-20201222

[ian16th]

The latest from APA News:

SAA Pilot Association

The South African Airways Pilot Association (SAAPA), which represents 89% of all pilots at SAA, has been locked out of the workplace since 18 December 2020, whilst pilots have not been paid in a year. SAAPA members have been targeted in a vindictive and slanderous fashion by the BRPs and the DPE both in the press and recently at SCOPA, where the Minister himself targeted SAAPA and made a statement that “the SAA Pilots’ Association was sabotaging the relaunch of SAA”.

The reality is somewhat different. The very pilots needed to undertake the required training have been locked out by the Company, with the blessing of the DPE and any attempt SAAPA has made to work together with the Company or the BRPs for the last 15 months, has been met with disinterest and our many attempts to assist or reach a compromise have been blocked at every opportunity.

The Company, the BRP’s and the DPE have used business rescue and COVID-19 to wage a war of attrition on the pilots of SAA claiming that the Regulating Agreement, which governs the working conditions of ALL pilots, regardless of race or gender and was signed in 2014, as the main reason for SAA’s demise.

A cursory knowledge of the State Capture Commission hearings as they relate to SAA and SAA Technical and the court ordered delinquency of Ms. Dudu Myeni reveal the real reasons for SAA’s misfortune, along with years of publicly known mismanagement and ineptitude, all under the auspices of the Department of Public Enterprises. The fact that the BRPs have not instituted a single court action to recover monies stolen, misappropriated and wasted by SAA and SAA Technical staff and managers and have also not replaced a single person in the woeful SAA management ranks, while waging war on the pilots of SAA and other employees, speak for itself.

SAAPA agreed to cancel the Regulating Agreement in October of 2020 but would not accept the unlawful manner in which the BRP’s wanted to retrench the pilots. In an unprecedented move, SAAPA has now not only demanded the cancellation of the agreement but also, we have demanded to be retrenched as there is simply no reason why SAA and the BRPs have not done so, other than to further their agenda and attempt to prejudice the pilots of SAA.

SAA management and the BRPs have relished that SAA currently has minimal costs, with no aircraft leases or operating costs and a very low headcount and has used this advantage to attempt to starve out the pilots. SAAPA pilots have endured and withstood over three months of lock out and were last paid a year ago. The Company has now realised it needs the highly skilled pilots it has locked out and is attempting to force a selected few back to work, while comically attempting to blame the pilots for the decision to lock them out.

Late on the evening of 29 March, the Company sent out a communique to unlawfully cherry pick pilots that belong to SAAPA, in an attempt to unlock only those pilots needed whilst the lockout of all SAAPA pilots is still in full effect. SAA, the BRPs and the DPE cannot have their cake and eat it too. The prejudicial and unnecessary lockout of SAA pilots has not worked, as the pilots have refused to bow to the bullying and attempted financial siege by those looking to scapegoat us. In the interim, the BRPs have authorised payment of another four months back pay to all SAA staff other than the pilots, to whom they still owe payments from 2019. This is prejudice, abuse of power and malice at its worst.

SAAPA embarked on a strike ballot in accordance with the LRA and our Recognition Agreement, conducted under the auspices of a TOKISO observer. The results were counted and 98.77% of SAAPA members voted in favour of a strike. This is the first time in SAAPA’s over 50-year history that SAA pilots will embark on a strike and the SAAPA Executive has informed the Company of the results and given the Company 48 hours’ notice as is required by the LRA. We hold ourselves always open to engage the Company and bring an end to this protracted dispute.

All SAAPA pilots will embark on a protected strike on the following demands:

That the Regulating Agreement, its annexures and all other collective agreements be terminated on the day following the date on which the last SAAPA member leaves the employ of the Company as a result of the section 189(3) notice dated 18 July 2020.
That the proposed terms and conditions relating to dismissal of pilots for operational reasons and the notice period (The new terms and conditions that the Company themselves have tabled include three months’ notice pay) as contained in the Company’s proposed terms and condition for future pilots, be applied to the dismissal of current pilots because of the section 189 notice dated 18 July 2020.
We demand that all pilots who are to be retrenched because of the section 189(3) notice dated 18 July 2020 be retrenched by no later than 15 April 2021 and that SAA pay these pilots their remuneration on termination, for the three (3) months’ notice that pilots would have received, in lieu of the pilots working their notice period.

SAAPA will avail itself for a meeting with the BRP’s or the Company to avert the strike but if all else fails we remain unified and ready to meet any challenges. While settlement discussions are ongoing and SAAPA is hopeful that an acceptable compromise can be reached with SAA and the BRPs, this action was forced upon the remaining pilots of SAA who are SAAPA members as they remain the only SAA employees who have not been paid their December 2020 salaries and their 2019 guaranteed 13th cheque, which forms part of their normal remuneration and should have been paid in April 2020. These payments have been paid to all employees and pilots who took the voluntary severance packages as well as to a handful of pilots who had broken away from SAAPA late in 2020.

The current lockout of SAAPA members has no bearing on the payment of these amounts and they cannot lawfully be withheld. The non-payment of these amounts is only an attempt to bring the SAAPA membership to its knees and to force them to give in to the unreasonable demands placed upon them. SAAPA hopes that the SIU revelations into the large-scale looting, corruption and procurement rigging at SAA, particularly at SAA Cargo and SAA Technical, has been noted by both the public and the role players in SAA and calls on them to abandon the attempts to paint SAAPA members as the cause of SAA’s demise. A resolution to the numerous disputes is possible, should there be a bona-fide intention from the BRPs and shareholder to treat SAAPA members fairly and equitably, which is SAAPA’s only requirement for the pilots to agree to all demands including the cancellation of the much-maligned but innocent Regulating Agreement.

Captain Grant Back
Chairperson of the South African Airways Pilots’ Association (SAAPA)

Editor responds:
What a tragedy that this mess has happened with serious discrimination against the SAA pilots, most of whom have not received a salary for the past year. Fortunately, I know some ex-SAA pilots who have managed to secure other employment, but they are in the minority. Then the appalling waste of R5 million for the sending an Airbus A340-600 to Brussels to collect one pallet of vaccines weighing less than a ton, when these vaccines could have been shipped on a freighter as a fraction of the cost. There is so much more that has to come out about the rampant corruption at SAA over the past 10 years, but will the perpetrators (read criminals) ever be charged?

[ian16th]

Dunno how things are with the Pilots Union.

[Woody]

Who’s going to be in the air first SAA or Flybe

[ian16th]

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