Namibian workers at South African Airways have gone for seven months without salaries, documents seen by Eagle FM have shown, as the airline continues to face trouble in the skies and a financial headache in South Africa.
Eagle FM has managed to glean on communication by Namibia Transport and Allied Workers Union to the airline, bringing the grievances of the workers to the attention of the SAA management.
An Air Namibia official that spoke to Eagle FM has confirmed the authenticity of the documents, admitting that it has been seven months now with the airline not having paid them.
But workers are fearful of losing their jobs and refused to document to the trove of documents that show that all is not well for them at SAA.
Namibian workers can now look forward to the eventuality of SA being given a N$10.5 billion bail by the SA government.
But this is also being resisted by some associations as the money is being cut from other government agencies to fund the airline.
NATAU has said the situation has affected about 30 workers who are represented by them including South African employees in Namibia.
In the matter that has been put before the labour commissioner, SAA staff submits, “On the 18th of March 2020, the acting general manager for HR, Martin Kemp wrote an email that was sent via an internal communication platform informing staff that they will be put on unpaid leave until the end of May 2020 as all flights were cancelled”.
The workers submit that when they realised that they would not be paid, according to the detailed document put before the labour commissioner, company shop steward Louisa Skrywer informed Kemp of the regulations which the had been put in place by President Hage Geingob.
THE state of emergency regulations forbad Namibian employers from dismissing workers, reducing their pay or putting them on leave due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Before that, these had not been declared as unconstitutional and invalid by a three-judge bench of the High Court.
On the 27th of March 2020, Kemp is said to have complied to the regulations and assured stuff that these would be complied with by the end of April 2020
True to his word, Namibian workers at SAA said, they were paid their salaries.
However, problems began soon after.
The following month, SAA sent notifications to its Namibian employees that they would not be paid as they would be placed on unpaid leave and the very same month
