The lock out of FlySafair cabin crew entered its second seven-day period on Sunday as negotiations over wages and working conditions again reached a stalemate.
The South African Cabin Crew and Alliances union (Sacca) accused the budget carrier of disingenuous motives and negotiating tactics.
The union, which represents about two-thirds of FlySafair’s cabin crew, says the airline has gone back on its word, changed agreements after the fact and ignored labour laws that protect employees.
Sacca claims FlySafair is negotiating in bad faith
It has requested the department of labour to intervene.
Sacca spokesperson Feroze Kader said that the talks were always about more than just about wages.
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“We had a list of 42 items when discussions started in May. By agreement we cut it down to 21 issues key to the wellbeing of cabin crew,” he said.
He added that from the get-go, talks with management went awry.
“They gave us one minute per line item to detail our issues and told us that they were not really interested in entertaining us,” Kader said.
Issues remain unresolved
Fast forward to last month and now and the issues raised remain unresolved.
“Safair took and continues to hold an adversarial stance,” Kader said.
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“The company’s international owners clearly don’t care too much about local staff.”
According to Sacca, cabin crew do not earn overtime pay despite working 11-12 hours a day, six days a week. They receive no Sunday pay either.
The company’s position, Kader said, is that employees would then earn above an overtime threshold and thus not qualify for the payment.
Crew doesn’t have proper meal breaks
Kader said crew also do not get proper meal breaks during shifts that can last up to 12 hours and standby time at home is not counted as duty time even though crew must remain available.
FlySafair did not respond to questions before publication.
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