Aviation workers’ strike causes minimal disturbances

The first day of the strike by aviation sector workers affiliated to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) saw little disruption to flights yesterday, but if it continues there could be delays.

Airports in major cities, such as Cape Town, East London, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Johannesburg, are experiencing operational challenges.

Airlink only experienced a single delay of 37 minutes as a result of the strike. The airline put in place contingencies to mitigate the effect of the strike.

ALSO READ: ‘A victory for workers’ – Numsa’s Irvin Jim as Ford strike called off

The strike, sparked by a dispute over pay structures, came after failed negotiations between ground handling company Menzies Aviation and Numsa over the transition of workers from permanent hourly pay to permanent monthly pay.

Payment issue

The Numsa spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, said the company had been ignoring the issue.

“We want the workers to be paid as if they are monthly employees, which means if you are on leave you are still paid, whereas if hourly workers are not at work they don’t get paid.

“That creates a situation where people come to work even when they are extremely ill and that is wrong,” she said.

Numsa described a company proposal that differentiated between employees at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg and smaller airports in other centres as a “divide and rule” tactic because only workers at OR Tambo would benefit.

“The offer made by the company was not acceptable. We can’t accept a situation where some workers get a benefit and others don’t.

ALSO READ: Shake-ups in SA aviation imminent as Qatar Airways looks to invest – but not in SAA

“It’s surprising that an employer would even want workers to suggest that as a proposal, because workers are all working the same hours and being exposed to the same conditions, but some would get paid per month and some per hour.

“Why is that fair? If you continue with that state of affairs, you just create division in the workplace.”

SAA spokesperson Vimla Maistry said the airline had not had operational disruptions.

Safair spokesperson Kirby Gordon said: “We’ve put contingencies in place by deploying our own staff to assist. The teams managed really well.”