South African unions file court application over SAA job cuts

Two South African trade unions have filed an urgent labor court application over planned job cuts at embattled South African Airways (SAA), a spokeswoman for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa said on Tuesday. Analysts say the layoffs will be key to reviving the fortunes of SAA, which is fighting for its survival after being placed under a form of bankruptcy protection in December.

But unions say specialists appointed to try to rescue SAA are attempting to push through the job cuts without following the country's labor laws. "We've gone to court in order to safeguard the rights of our members and to ensure that proper legal process is followed if retrenchments do occur," NUMSA spokeswoman Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said.

She said unions were concerned that SAA's business rescue practitioners wanted to accelerate job cuts outside of the 60-day mandatory consultation period provided for in the labor law's section 189 process. That is designed to give employees the right to challenge the fairness of layoffs or to go on strike.

NUMSA and another union, the South African Cabin Crew Association, are also seeking a second court order compelling the business rescue experts to implement a training layoff scheme negotiated as part of a wage deal last year. The scheme would see a government training authority pay SAA workers that could lose their jobs three-quarters of their salaries for a minimum of six months while they are retrained.

Hlubi-Majola said unions expected their application to be heard on Thursday. A spokeswoman for SAA's business rescue team could not immediately comment.

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