Cash-strapped country needs to be rid of SAA
ONE OF the primary factors behind SAA’s financial meltdown is that it pays its employees far more than they would receive at other airlines.
Salaries paid to cabin and operations crew are apparently about 50% higher than the industry standard, while pilots and office personnel apparently earn about 2.3 times more than their peers.
This has saddled SAA with a wagebill of more than R6 billion a year, which contributed towards it making a loss of more than R5bn a year in 2017, 2018 and last year.
The government wants to retrench around 3 700 of SAA’s 4 700 employees and is offering generous severance-packages. The average package amounts to a mouth-watering R580 000, which borders on scandalous when one considers that employees would receive a maximum of R32 000 if SAA were liquidated, and are likely to be rehired (by SAA) if everything goes according to plan.
Greedy SAA employees are refusing to accept the offer.
What our cash-strapped nation needs is for SAA to be shut down permanently.
The ANC recently cautioned the SABC against retrenching staff, warning that it could cost the ANC votes in next year’s municipal elections. Consequently, the government is not likely to agree to the permanent loss of 4 700 jobs. The only hope is that someone like Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, who has promised to reduce the government’s wage bill by R160bn will bring the government to its senses.
One should not, however, hold one’s breath.
TERENCE GRANT | Cape Town