Air traffic wage strike ‘will ground planes’ in South Africa

SA’s airspace could become empty space if current wage negotiations between Air Traffic and Navigation Services (ATNS) and the South African Transport Allied Workers Union (Satawu) don’t land.

Workers want 6.5% and ATNS put 2% less on the table.

Negotiations stalled last week and the union warned that, should no agreement be reached, workers would down tools.

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Effect will be substantial

The consequences for the aviation sector could be dire and cost the economy millions of rands.

The knock-on effect of a single flight delay is substantial. From connecting flight misses, to the cost of additional operating crew. An airline executive said delays rip through already thin margins.

“It’s a very costly burden for airlines and it’s the airlines that carry the can,” he said.

Recent airport closures by ATNS due to delays in standards upgrades on instrumentation over 10 days in July, already allegedly caused 692 flight delays across the country, trade media reported.

This was due to pilots unable to rely on instrument approaches and landing visually.

A week-long strike could mean that almost 50 000 passengers could be stranded daily at OR Tambo International Airport alone.

The hub moves 21 million people annually. There are about 4 980 landings countrywide every week, of which the majority are domestic airlines still recovering from the pandemic financial crunch.

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Kirby Gordon of FlySafair said the carrier is planning ahead as much as it can. “At this stage we are working with ATNS management to best understand the risks and plan accordingly,” he said.

Lift Airline said it needed a day to think about its response.

“Thanks again for reaching out. However, we don’t have any comments to share at this stage.

“As soon as we receive official notification, we will provide relevant updates where relevant,” the company’s public relations agency said.

An Airlink representative said the airline would endeavour to mitigate any negative impact on passengers.

“Should workers down tools, it will be disastrous for air traffic,” they said, adding that the only thing carriers can do is to try soften the blow for delayed passengers.

ATNS believes there will be no strike

ATNS does not seem concerned. Spokesperson Mphilo Dlamini said there is no threat of a strike.

“There is no strike, nor a threat of a strike at ATNS.

“The company is currently undergoing a substantive wage negotiations with Satawu, which represents a section of our unionised employees.

“Satawu has subsequently referred the matter to the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration] under Section 150 and the matter is at conciliation stage,” Dlamini said.

But this week, the union’s Amanda Tshemese told media otherwise. She said labour “is rejecting this nonsense”.

“If we have to go on strike so, be it. We have already referred the matter to the CCMA. There’s money but they are greedy and refusing to pay the real workers who are making billions of rands for this company,” Tshemese said.

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