SA Airlink pilots have called off a planned strike on Monday over wages, their trade union, Solidarity, said on Sunday night.
”All Airlink flights will depart on schedule from tomorrow [Monday] morning. There will be no disruption of flights,” said union spokesperson Dirk Hermann.
He said a formal settlement was reached after the company put forward a ”substantially better” offer.
This included a ”process” of increases at the end of which pilots’ salaries would be market-related and ”won’t be 30% lower anymore”.
Hermann could not provide details of the agreement as it was subject to a confidentiality clause.
However, he said it dealt with all six of the union’s main disputes, pertaining to, among other things, the retirement age — now set at 63 instead of 60 years; insurance; and performance bonuses.
”We are very satisfied,” said Hermann.
He said the agreement almost fell through when the company ”prematurely” announced the settlement of the strike, in what was perceived as a ”break of trust”.
”This is regretted,” Hermann and SA Airlink commercial director Barrie Webb said in a joint statement.
He said a substantial number of Solidarity members had voted against the final proposal even though it was ”a really good offer”.
”All the major issues are addressed, but still the guys rejected the offer. It seems there is a lot of tension in the company. That needs to be addressed.”
Solidarity had proposed hiring an external consultant to find out what the problem was and had indicated that it would participate in the study, said Hermann. – Sapa