We won't be blackmailed by "greedy" SAA pilots – Government

[Corelli]

I asume the percentage above 11% is how much of the wage bill usually go to them. Then if it is fairly distributed it should still be 11%.

There is no way that 1 in every ten employees is a pilot. SAA where way to overstaffed with useless administrator and nonsense.

SAA Pilots earn 48% of the wage bill but they make up 12% of the staff. And with benefits we spend over R2 billion a year on them

 

[Deandbn]

Has anyone actually seen their perks?
5* Hotel accomodation
Free travel on business class (yip they frequently bumped paying customers off business class for their free flights) And oh yes there was one case where they flew 19 family members on business class - free
If a pilot gets divorced his ex wife retains all their free business class flights and so does the new wife (or gf)
The pilot makes up 12% of the staff but make up for 48% of the wage bill
They qualify for 3 months of sick leave a year (but a lot has taken upto 180 days)
There are 779 pilots and with benefits cost the airline (and the SA Tax Payer) R2 billion a year.

Pampered SAA pilots’ bizarre perks and wages cost R2bn – The Citizen

The perks and salaries are agreed in advance with their employers and I would also want to be well renumeration for working at the ass end of Africa. In fact I would probably just like to be paid for the work I've already done

 

[SeRpEnT]

So they are costing us R2 billion a year, but they complain about a plane flight that cost R5 million to fetch a vaccine to save a lot of lives.

I say lets boycot SAA even when they come back. Let them go bankrupt and they can go fly somewhere else.

I want to encourage the Drive Locally and enjoy the countryside vs flying and pay for overpaid salaries and benefits while costing the taxpayer billions campaign

The pilot's was of the opinion that this was overkill. Sending a jumbo jet for one pallet. It could have been done cheaper with less SAA fanfare.
The one's bringing the salary of these pilot's into the equation is the government...and you. Their salary has got zilch to do with the whole matter...

You clearly fall very easily for the ANC slight-of hand diversion tricks.
Shame on you.

 

[grok]

SAA Pilots earn 48% of the wage bill but they make up 12% of the staff. And with benefits we spend over R2 billion a year on them

Good, there's a reason you pay your pilots well. Pretty stewardesses are fine for chicken-or-beef, but none of them can fly a plane..

 

[SeRpEnT]

Anyways.... just leaving this here..

"by world standards, SAA pilots are actually low paid. This is readily evident in the (pre-Covid) number of SAA pilots who leave to fly for better pay at other airlines."

Op-Ed: Are SAA pilots really overpaid?

This past week the Department of Public Enterprise (DPE) claimed that SAA pilots are, “the second-best paid in the world.” This is an astoundingly crude lie that is evidently false for two reasons

www.dailymaverick.co.za

 

[Milano]

SAA Pilots earn 48% of the wage bill but they make up 12% of the staff. And with benefits we spend over R2 billion a year on them

They are supposed to earn their value not their number comrade. Besides we don't have to spend anything on an airline, it should have been sold to the private sector long ago when it was still profitable (at those exact same pilot earning ratio's btw)

 

[neoprema]

DPE is on about SAA doing cargo flights but it looks like they sent a passenger jet?

 

[neoprema]

So they are costing us R2 billion a year, but they complain about a plane flight that cost R5 million to fetch a vaccine to save a lot of lives.

I say lets boycot SAA even when they come back. Let them go bankrupt and they can go fly somewhere else.

I want to encourage the Drive Locally and enjoy the countryside vs flying and pay for overpaid salaries and benefits while costing the taxpayer billions campaign

Problem is Govt wont mind impacting billions of Rands worth of industry by suddenly making life very hard for international airlines with inflated prices and stricter policies so that they can "force" SAA into routes.
Wait for it...

 

[R13...]

It makes perfect sense to me that pilots are paid more than the average staff member at SAA.

By that same logic I'd expect doctors to make up a greater percentage of the salary bill at a hospitals relative to the average staff member.

They're a higher skill job with a greater level of responsibility required and therefore earn more.

I don't dispute that they should earn more than other staff but taking 65% of the salary bill is excessive. I have googled a bit and the numbers don't make sense. SAA report 5752 staff in 2016/17. And a different report somewhere else say they had 830 pilots in 2010 and 383 last year. That's not 11% but would be even worse if the 383 take up 65% of the salary at such a small fraction of the total complement.

 

[ThinkCentre]

Oh please don't fall for greedy pilots and close down!!

 

[Quicks]

I might be wrong, but as far as I know pilots are no longer needed? the jet can fly it self? Maybe just get a technician onboard with each flight to make sure nothing goes wrong. Show them all where the door is!

 

[SeRpEnT]

I might be wrong, but as far as I know pilots are no longer needed? the jet can fly it self? Maybe just get a technician onboard with each flight to make sure nothing goes wrong. Show them all where the door is!

 

[rietrot]

Has anyone actually seen their perks?
5* Hotel accomodation
Free travel on business class (yip they frequently bumped paying customers off business class for their free flights) And oh yes there was one case where they flew 19 family members on business class - free
If a pilot gets divorced his ex wife retains all their free business class flights and so does the new wife (or gf)
The pilot makes up 12% of the staff but make up for 48% of the wage bill
They qualify for 3 months of sick leave a year (but a lot has taken upto 180 days)
There are 779 pilots and with benefits cost the airline (and the SA Tax Payer) R2 billion a year.

Pampered SAA pilots’ bizarre perks and wages cost R2bn – The Citizen

Only 779 pilots?

Old article, but I don't believe they ever had large retrenchments.

South African Airways: 55,500 employees with a total of 58 aircraft = 957 employees per aircraft

Horrific stats about SAA - South African Magazine - SA PROMO

Why is South African Airways (SAA) always running at such a huge loss and forever requesting bail-outs from the government? Incompetence comes to mind, but why not look closer.

www.sapromo.com

That's only 1.5% pilots.

 

[Segg]

Bullkak

SAAPA is the majority union at SAA

Government is wasting money sending an empty A340-600 half way across the world to pick up one pallet of cargo which could have been delivered here by an airline like KLM, Qatar, Emirates and even TUI (who have been doing the deliveries lately) at a fraction of the cost

You don't test out a cargo airline by incurring such significant costs and to pick up 1 pallet and using a passenger aircraft

This is nothing more than a waste of money, and war of words

With SA's current debt situation its like how some people act flashy but in reality can't afford it.

 

[Jola]

I might be wrong, but as far as I know pilots are no longer needed? the jet can fly it self? Maybe just get a technician onboard with each flight to make sure nothing goes wrong. Show them all where the door is!

You are thinking of the new Tesla's ?

 

[porchrat]

I don't dispute that they should earn more than other staff but taking 65% of the salary bill is excessive. I have googled a bit and the numbers don't make sense. SAA report 5752 staff in 2016/17. And a different report somewhere else say they had 830 pilots in 2010 and 383 last year. That's not 11% but would be even worse if the 383 take up 65% of the salary at such a small fraction of the total complement.

hmmm. Good point. The way it's phrased in the quote is even more confusing. It makes it sound like not all of pilots at SAA are part of the union.

 

[Willie Trombone]

This seems ridiculous if true. Then these pilots have had it good and seem to have also profited from the corruption. (Not corrupt jus that they got looked after instead of the state fixing the lopsidedness)

Dunno about you but I'm pretty sure pilots don't write their own cheques.
SAA AKA government do.
And is it not a tad rich for our government to have a go at SAA for the pilots salaries when government ministers and parliament make up what percentage of government spending again?
You'd swear the pilots write their own cheques... Parliament ln the other hand...

SA wage bill at R630bn is higher than the global norm as a percentage of GDP

The report recognises differences in constitutional models, but it is clear that South Africa has the highest ratio of compensation to public spending, with over 35 percent allocated to compensation.

www.iol.co.za

 

[magneto]

SAA Pilots earn 48% of the wage bill but they make up 12% of the staff. And with benefits we spend over R2 billion a year on them

LoL, all them 3-4 post to rant bullshit... when could have been done in 1... did you get your free 2 piece KFC for it yet????

 

[Segg]

SAA Pilots earn 48% of the wage bill but they make up 12% of the staff. And with benefits we spend over R2 billion a year on them

By all means please step into a level D simulator and drill some emergencies that will kill you and all couple hundred of pax on board if you screw up so much as one step in the real world.

Aviation is a global industry, one needs to be globally competitive. SAA is not, and you can not blame the pilots for that. Infact, you can credit them for operationally running one of the safest airlines on earth (IINM second only to Qantas) due to their professionalism and skill.

You want to earn more than double what the SAA captains earn? Go to China

 

[SWB]

So what is the name of this twat at the DPE?

Sending a passenger plane to collect one fekken pallet of vaccines is not a feasibility study.

Pravin Gordhan publicly stated:
"Speaking during a briefing to the Public Enterprises Committee, Gordhan said it was important for the image of the country for this to happen."
"Gordhan says they are asking the Business Rescue Practitioners for some of its bigger aircraft to be used."