South African Airways to begin talks on job cuts: Rescue team

Specialists appointed to try to save struggling South African Airways said Monday they plan to begin employee consultations on job cuts, a stage of the rescue plan likely to meet fierce resistance from trade unions. “Our intention has always been to preserve as many jobs as possible through this process while still focusing on having a sustainable airline,” the practitioners Les Matuson and Siviwe Dongwana said in a joint statement, adding that they had notified at least seven different unions. Matuson and Dongwana said that they “contemplate that all 4,708 employees will be affected and the number of jobs that will exist in the restructured organisation will be the subject of the consultation process.” SAA entered a form of bankruptcy protection in December, with administrators taking over management of the state-owned airline, which hasn’t made a profit since 2011. Matuson and Dongwana said in their statement on Monday that the airline had “cumulated losses of some 26b rand ($1.63b) over the past six years.” A court last month rejected an application by two trade unions to block job cuts at SAA.<br/>