SAA business rescue practitioners and unions to meet again on Thursday
The National Union Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) will return for another meeting with the appointed business rescue practitioners at embattled South African Airways (SAA) on Thursday afternoon.
This follows the proposal tabled earlier this week of significant job cuts at the airline.
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The practitioners held a meeting with unions and SAA employees on Tuesday regarding turn-around strategies to assist the cash-strapped entity.
This comes after the national carrier's business rescue practitioners Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana approached the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), seeking financial relief.
SAA executives announced that some 900 workers needed to be retrenched leading to a week-long strike at the national carrier in November 2019.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola says practioners believe that in order to obtain more funding for the airline, they need to shed jobs.
"He said that in order for us to gain further funding, we would have to agree to certain conditions and some of those conditions included that workers must be retrenched much more than the 944 proposed in November," says Hlubi-Majola.
She adds that this is not a solution that they are willing to take lightly.
"We rejected the idea that workers accept this condition when there is no business practitioner's plan to date."
"They wanted us to accept these conditions when we are completely in the dark about what the final plan for the airline will be," concludes Hlubi-Majola