South African Airways (SAA), the State-owned national flag carrier, believes it has been vindicated by the Labour Court ruling on Monday regarding retrenchment processes at SAA and its subsidiary, SAA Technical (SAAT). SAAT undertakes aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul. The court ruled in favour of the companies.

The case saw a number of unions seeking to stop SAA and SAAT undertaking retrenchments, on the grounds that the companies had to comply with “fair procedure”. The main unions concerned were the Aviation Union of Southern Africa (AUSA), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), Solidarity and the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu).

These, and the other unions supporting them, took action against both SAA and SAAT and SAA’s recognised unions, the National Transport Movement (NTM), the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) and Uasa. “Whilst it was within the labour unions’ rights to approach the court, SAA feels it was a step [that was] completely unnecessary as the differences could have been resolved in a mutually constructive manner,” said the company in its press release.

Regarding SAA, the court pointed out that the company had extended its consultation period with the unions three times beyond the limit allowed for in the relevant legislation, amounting to about three-and-a-half months instead of the two months (60 days) found in the law. It found that SAA’s collective agreement with NTM, Sacca and Uasa was “valid and binding”. As a result, the attempt by the other unions to have this agreement set aside failed.

SAAT has no such collective agreement with any unions, “despite numerous attempts by SAAT to conclude such an agreement”. Nevertheless, the court found no grounds to intervene in the retrenchment process at the business. “The court’s dismissal of AUSA, Numsa, Satawu, Solidarity and Others’ application is indicative of the fact that processes of this nature can only be resolved with a commitment by all parties to joint consensus seeking,” affirmed SAA.