The South African Airways pay strike is still on, the SAA help desk said on Wednesday following an overnight mediation attempt by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
Unions and the airline were not immediately available to comment on the outcome of the CCMA mediation session.
After a few minutes’ wait on the SAA help desk on Wednesday morning to the calming holding music of a flute and running water, a person manning the help line said: ”The strike is still on”.
And in a a full-page newspaper advertisement headed ”We are sorry”, the airline said: ”The past few days have been the most difficult in the recent history of our airline.”
It continued: ”When cabin crew fail to report for duty as part of this industrial action, we cannot operate flights as no aircraft can be operated without a minimum number of cabin crew. This is a safety requirement of the Civil Aviation Authority of South Africa.”
Mediation between the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), the United Association of SA (Uasa) and SAA began at 3pm on Tuesday in a bid to resolve a dispute over the eight percent the unions want and the five percent the airline has offered.
The airline also believes that its application of the increase to medical aid and housing and a once-off payment of R1 600 improves the offer.
The unions say they agree over the amount available to the airline for increases, but disagree on how it will be shared.
SAA say they have moved up to the latest offer from an initial opening offer of two percent six months ago, but that the unions have not adjusted their demand.
Meanwhile, since the strike started on Friday, 75% of the flights had been cancelled, postponed or delayed, SAA said.
All international and regional flights were cancelled until further notice and domestic flights were being assessed hourly.
About 65% of passengers have been rerouted, or accommodated on other flights or on SAA’s alliance partners.
If the present online booking falls into the dates affected by the strike, SAA said it will honour the change at the original price paid.
They had agreements with various airlines on endorsement of tickets, loaning of aircraft, additional capacity and consolidation of various SAA flights where possible.
Contingency plans included the training of contract cabin crew for relief on domestic flights and the training of students to man call centres and reservations posts.
They were also accommodating up to a 2 000 stranded passengers worldwide in hotels. – Sapa