Wage talks between South African Airways and its striking employees to end a five-day industrial action have collapsed without any resolution, the workers’ representatives announced on Wednesday.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) said the national carrier’s management refused to agree to the workers’ revised demand for a 6.5-percent salary demand.
Before the revised figure, the 3,000 striking workers had demanded an eight percent wage increase.
The SAA management is said to have insisted it could only afford a 5.9-percent offer it had previously tabled, which the workers had already rejected as inadequate.
“We had managed to negotiate various things and we put 6.5 percent as an offer on the table. But at the 11th hour the South African Airways management did an about-turn and withdrew the 6.5 percent that was on the table,” NUMSA spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said.
Meanwhile, the SAA said it had resumed flying both international and selected regional flights since Tuesday following the return of some pilots and crew back to work.
NM/jn/APA