SAA finds its wings | Jobs to be protected for at least 5 years

JOHANNESBURG - SAA employees' jobs will be protected for at least five years.

This is one of the conditions for the Takatso takeover of the national carrier.

READ: Takatso, SAA deal given the green-light

The Competition Commission has cleared the deal for takeoff.

It means Takatso will take 51 percent of the airline, with government holding on to the remaining 49 percent.

There were some indications that there might be some retrenchments, but for us you can’t achieve efficiency at the expense of workers," said Tamara Paremoer, Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at the Competition Commission.

READ: SAA | Union wants Takatso deal grounded

"So we did interrogate where these retrenchments might come from. What we found was that there was insufficient evidence that this would be justified.

"So we did propose that the tribunal impose a condition that workers be protected for five years following the implementation for the transaction, this was to give certainty to an important constituency in terms of the competition.”