BUSINESS OF AIRPORT STAFF

COMAIR STRIVING TO AVOID STRIKE

COMAIR said yesterday that it was working flat out to avoid or mitigate a possible strike by airport ground staff, and has at the same time put in place contingencies to continue its daily operations should the industrial action happen. This as the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) served the domestic airline with a 48hour notice to strike on Tuesday over wage discrepancies. If it goes ahead, the strike would begin at 1pm today. Comair operates kulula.com and all British Airways flights in South Africa. The dispute relates to salary anomalies of 21 employees hired prior to 2009 being paid higher than the agreed applicable salary scale. Numsa represents just more than 50 percent of Comair’s 700 airport ground staff out of a total staff complement of 2 200 people. Wrenelle Stander, Comair’s executive director for airline division, said while the company continues to engage Numsa to reach an agreement, it has also approached the Labour Court for an urgent interdict to prevent a possible strike. The matter has been set down for 10am today. “We are hopeful that we will be able to resolve the situation, however, even if this does not happen, we want to reassure customers that our contingency plan is comprehensive, and we intend to continue our daily operations,” Stander said. He said employees from across the business have volunteered to assist at airports over the Easter weekend. Stander said that the airline was also pro-actively calling as many customers as possible 72 hours before departure to facilitate check-in and is providing additional bagdrop counters. Comair customers have been advised to check-in online or use the airport kiosks and to drop bags at the dedicated fast-bag-drop counters.

| African News Agency (ANA)