Comair ruling: Victory for employees and labour relations

23 November 2020

Solidarity today welcomed the Labour Court ruling that a collective agreement between Comair and Solidarity be upheld. According to Solidarity, this ruling gives employees, employers, as well as the airline’s investors a sense of greater security and confidence.

“It was of the utmost importance that this agreement remained in place to ensure the survival of the airline and to make it possible for it to start flying again on 1 December 2020. It is thanks to this agreement that the jobs of hundreds of employees are protected, and the airline’s long-term sustainability is protected,” Derek Mans, Solidarity’s aviation and defenceorganiser, explained.

Solidarity contends that this turn of events is representative of a more overall trend in labour relations in South Africa and that it will and should become more commonplace for trade unions and employers to approach each other as partners rather than as opponents at the negotiating table.

“Our agreement, and this ruling confirm that we are living in a new world of labour relations. In a post-Covid-19 world, parties in labour relations will have to increasingly negotiate on the basis of joint interests and joint gain instead of the traditional approach of opposing interests,” Mans posited. “In general, this development should be welcomed, and particularly so as far as it pertains to aviation where the entire industry is still trying to recover after an extremely challenging year,” Mans concluded.

Issued by Derek Mans, Organiser: Aviation and Defence, 23 November 2020