South Africa’s Department of Public Enterprises has asked workers at the bankrupt national airline to accept three months’ pay rather than the eight months they are entitled to by labor law and the terms of a business rescue plan, according to a labor union leader. The offer was made at the weekend and will not be accepted “on our watch,” Grant Back, chairman of the South African Airways Pilots Association, said Monday. The department paid 1.5b rand ($99m) to the administrators of the airline last week, but the money can’t be used because the administrators say the conditions imposed breach labor and companies regulation. South African Airways, which was placed under administration in December last year, hasn’t flown commercially since March and its business rescue plan details a hierarchy of payments including severance packages for dismissed workers. “The DPE considers the agreement reached with some unions” for three months payment to be fair, the department said Monday. “Certain unions are deliberately undermining the process and seem to be in alliance with opposition parties to undermine the business rescue process.”<br/>
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Ground crew at Germany's beleaguered airline giant Lufthansa have agreed to a E200m cut in personnel costs in exchange for avoiding forced redundancies until March 2022, trade union Verdi said Monday. The agreement covers 35,000 staff in Germany and includes the cancellation of bonuses and a suspension of wage increases, as the air industry confronts an unprecedented slump in travel demand because of the pandemic. The deal also allows for early retirement and voluntary redundancies and will protect employees from compulsory layoffs until the end of March 2022. Germany's powerful Verdi union said 71% of members had accepted the deal, calling it a "vote of solidarity among Lufthansa employees". Lufthansa's human resources chief Michael Niggemann said he was "pleased" about the outcome. He said work should now start on agreeing measures from 2022, when the government's short-time work scheme to help firms through the Covid-19 crisis is set to end. Lufthansa, which received a E9b bailout from the German government in June to stay afloat, has previously said it plans to cut around 30,000 jobs by the end of the year. <br/>
Singapore Airlines and its Indian joint venture Vistara have inked a commercial co-operation framework agreement, widening its existing areas of partnership. The agreement, which builds on an existing codeshare partnership signed in 2017, will see both carriers co-operate in areas such as capacity planning, sales and marketing, as well as customer service and operations. SIA says that the partnership will “allow both airlines to achieve further synergies on services between Singapore and India, as well as in key regions of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand”. “This will be important, as the aviation industry recovers from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and both international and domestic connectivity are restored in a gradual and calibrated manner in tandem with the demand for air travel,” the carrier adds. The agreement will be subject to Singaporean regulatory approval, says SIA, which owns 49% of Vistara. Indian conglomerate Tata Sons owns the remaining 51% shareholding in the New Delhi-based carrier.<br/>
Japan’s biggest airline, ANA Holdings, said Monday it had set the price for a new share offering at 2,286 yen ($21.95) a share to raise up to 305.3b yen for investments, such as the purchase of Boeing 787 planes. Like other big global airlines ANA has been making cost cuts to cope with the coronavirus-driven travel slump, but unlike many other airlines it has opted to stick with its pre-pandemic orders of the fuel-efficient 787 from Boeing.<br/>
Air New Zealand’s head of HR is set to leave the business after overseeing the process that led to around a third of its employees being made redundant. Joe McCollum was only appointed to the position of chief people officer in April 2020 but the airline insists he is finishing up a fixed-term agreement. Nikki Dines, currently general manager of people – corporate, revenue and employee experience, will be promoted to replace him. The company has so far cut around 4,000 jobs, or around 30% of the company, in an attempt to reduce the wage bill by $150m. When McCollum was appointed, CE Greg Foran said, “Joe is no stranger to the type of large scale, rapid workplace change that Air New Zealand has ahead in the wake of COVID-19. He will be a key member of the team to rebuild our airline.” Dines, meanwhile, joined the company in 2013 and has held a number of roles in the people, airports, and pilots teams, including being the general manager of pilots, head of pilot enablement and senior manager of Auckland Domestic Airport. “Nikki is regarded as an outstanding leader with considerable airline knowledge and experience. Her promotion into the role is a credit to the depth of talent we have within the airline,” said Foran. “I want to thank Joe McCollum, who has played a critical role in helping Air New Zealand navigate the COVID-19 crisis and for getting us in a position to be ready to seize the opportunities ahead.”<br/>