Johannesburg – The business rescue practitioners (BRPs) of embattled state-owned national carrier, South African Airways (SAA) have drawn the line in the sand in their fight with the entity’s pilots, telling them their salaries will be slashed by half.
“Salaries of all pilots to be reduced by 50%. This will be more in line with the South African Market. Average pilot salary is R2.9 million going up to as much as R4.6 million for senior captains,” reads a statement from the BRPs.
“The new terms and conditions and salary scales are essential for the new competitive and successful SAA, which will initially require 88 pilots, to become cost effective and more productive. The new proposed terms include hours of work and rest which are aligned to the Civil Aviation Authority and will provide SAA a better chance at being a sustainable airline, once it has completed the business rescue process”.
The BRPs have also given 383 pilots a lock-out notice until Friday. This means, from Friday at 12pm, members of the South African Airways Pilots’ Association will be excluded from the company premises until the organisation accepts the demands made in the lock-out letter.
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in October will bailout the broke entity to the tune of R10.5 billion. Mboweni at the time said the money will go to funding a plan to rescue struggling airline.
The cash-strapped flag carrier was placed under a state-approved administration in December following years of mismanagement and rising debt. The company has not been profitable in nearly a decade.
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