* This story has been updated

One of the biggest unions at SAA has slammed a proposal to terminate the entire workforce of the crippled national carrier, saying a document from the business rescue practitioners outlining this process is “illegal”.

Feroze Kader, chief negotiator and PR for the South African Cabin Crew Association (SACCA), which together with the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa, represent about 60 percent of the 4,700 employees at SAA, said on Saturday Sacca “believes it is an illegal document” pointing out that in the document the names of all the various unions including SACCA are listed even though they hadn’t been consulted.

The leaked unsigned document seen by the Business Times lists the names of all the unions at SAA. This latest development comes just days after the government said it was unable to provide further funding to the state-owned airline.

“We only received this document late on Friday afternoon (April 17 2020) . SAA’s business rescue practitioners requested a virtual meeting this morning. However, we couldn’t meet because we only received the documents late yesterday and we needed to consult with our legal teams and couldn’t continue under the auspice of Section 189 because we have already said we can’t continue with this process during lockdown,” said Kader.

“Our attorneys will respond to the company by the close of business on Monday. “

Kader said SACCA had distanced itself from the retrenchment process underway at SAA during the lockdown because “we believe it’s too difficult to continue negotiations via (Microsoft) Teams or via Skype”.

“We can’t negotiate all aspects of information given to us by the company because we can’t verify the information with our subject matter experts. We asked SAA and the CCMA on our first official sitting around 24 March under Section 189A that we reserve our rights and that this process should not continue during lockdown. “

Kader added the CCMA and SAA said the majority of parties in the process had agreed to continue but without SACCA and Numsa.