SAA salaries
 

If I do a simple job and pay VAT on a small item in life, is part of that VAT being used to pay the salaries of the employees at SAA, even if I never get to see an SAA airplane in my life?
When the pilots at SAA negotiated their salaries, what was the Rand to Dollar ratio? Is that still the same today, or a little stronger??
Does SAA still have "VETO" rights on any start-up routes by competitors?
If, SAA were to be privatised, would their salaries still be so high???
Is it right that our incomes are used to pay the salaries for people who in all likeliness would not exist in a fair private system, but we ourselves cannot have nearly a comparable income, simply because we don't have the rest of the countries tax payers to prop up the airline?

Heres a Bet.
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No

Champagne Lover,

This certainly is a topic that could make ones blood boil isnt it ? I have to agree with you, but we all have a duty to pay our taxes, these taxes are not only going towards SAA but to many other things aswell. Dont get me wrong I certainly dont like paying tax and have yet to hear of anyone who does like paying tax !

Unfortunatly the only way we can have anything to say is by our vote in the general elections but in the recent years that hasnt been much to go by after all we do live in such a "democratic" society !

Well mate for now we will just have to wind our necks in and cough up !

Good luck,

Tt

A minority whose vote means squat paying the majority of the tax bill. The majority doesn't give a rat's how the money is wasted. It's not their money.

Another step down the slippery slope......:(

We'll just have to wait and see if and when SAA gets privatised. They are burning money and salaries are a major part of that burning process.
If you want to remein a good citizen(like I pressume you are), you will just have to keep paying your taxes.

Twotter, never a truer word spoken.

The only thing they care about is if someone else is stealing more than them. Then there's enquiries.

But wasting it? Most of these voters probably think the Government has unlimited funds, I know the average oke on the street thinks I have.

It's what comes of allowing a unsophisticated majority rule the place.:yuk:

Fancy a return to minority rule, Skies? :yuk:

Minority, majority, don't care, it would be nice to have the best people doing the relatively important task of running the country...

South Africa has a literacy rate of 67%. This means that fully ONE THIRD of the voters can't even read.

They can't read. How can they be expected to understand the intricacies of the modern international world? Interest rates, Foriegn Policy? They who struggle to put bread on the table every night?

Don't think of yourself, you are very different, think of them.

Think about the fact that there are 33% of 40 million people out there who were so poverty stricken that they could not even get themselves educated, and presumably still are.

They are the ones who need protecting.

Those whose bones are destined to creak for the rest of their lives as they pull off their thin blankets at 4am every morning to stand in the cold and catch a succession of taxi's to some dead-end job because they can't read and improve themselves.

They are the ones who need the millions which this government is wasting on Summits, Inaugurations, World Cups, Arms Deals, SAA, Other Scandals, Etc.

They are the ones who need efficient governance to improve their plight.

It obviously did not help them to have voted for this government 10 years ago.

They should have voted for someone who would have protected them and looked after their interests and put their advancement before things designed to make SA and its government look good but which waste BILLions of rands.

But they know no different, these people who lead such vastly different lives than you and I. They, all 13 million of them, were and still are political pawns in a power game.

These who make up the majority.

:uhoh:

ps. tell me, if you had a small country with few people in it and they were all idiots except for Nelson Mandela, who would you rather have run the place? The idiots?:E

Don't fall for automatically lauding democracy. There's a lot of situations where it doesn't work very well at all.

Gotta toe the party line working for the SABC, eh?

Always toi toi in the parking lot if that increase isn't what you expect.......:E :ok:

Agree with the sentiments of the original poster.

As for Democracy........unfortunately there isn't a better system in place.

SAA like the rest of South Africa will have to change if it to survive, and by its nature that change will be painful.

By the way does any one know what SAA salaries actually are? This thread being titled "SAA salaries". As a publicly owned body surely this info should be available to us!

I haven't posted on this forum for years, but I am amazed at the venom aimed at some airlines. Just some thougths.

Where to start?

George Tower: SAA is not listed on stock exchange - in other words not a public company. They can keep their salaries private if they want to. BTW. SAA pilot salaries are the result of bargaining between SAAPA and SAA management. All the other airlines are free to try for the same with their respective salary negotiation sessions.

126,7 : SAA made an operational profit. That includes salaries. The loss due to hedging and other corporate decisions are not due to pilot salaries.

Champagne lover and B Sousa: SAA and SAX is owned by Transnet (Rumour time : that might change soon). Transnet is owned by the government. Transnet and SAA boards are appointed by the government. If taxes are used to subsidise those airlines, it is the government's prerogative. As far as I know, the only times that tax money went to SAA in the last decade was to fix hedging and capital problems.

Pilots at SAA negotiate for the best possible package that they can get - as we all do. Why is that a problem? They managed to convince their management yonks ago that they should have some sort of parity with other international airlines. Good for them.

To get to the point. If you want to earn the same as an SAA pilot, either apply to SAA or negotiate a similar deal with your management. If both are unacceptable or impossible options - Tough. Live with it. I missed the SAA boat by going to varsity after the SAAF. Nobody forced me. I now work for another airline at less than SAA pay. So what. I must admit I actually like what I do and I get along on my salary.

SAA pilots are not the reason that SAA is in trouble. Their salaries are a drop in the bucket compaired to their turnover.

If you think that SAA pilots are idiots - fine. I guess every single airline in the world has some idiots flying for them - but ALL the pilots??

If you don't agree with me, by all means flame away. But just think a second about the control you have over your own position and renumeration. Do you think the average SAA pilot has more or less?

Nugpot....excellent thoughts. Finally someone who can see the bigger picture in this tough world.

And suddenly the peanut gallery has gone quite ?

nugs and Gimbal

It's not about whether SAA have bad pilots or not. Like any company the good and the bad are there. I have a number of friends who fly for SAA and even they have told me they're embarressed at being constantly bailed out by the taxpayer while the politically appointed ^%#@heads continue to rip the :mad: off the cat.

Please try to pay attention......

The last two heads at spoories ripped the ring out of the budget.
These guys were not even so-called 'political' appointments, instead they were just parasites looking to make a quick buck.

Also just heard recently that our friend JVJ (Johan Van Jaarsveld) was given a police escort out of Airways Park, and is currently under investigation for fraud.

It is these guys who should be accountable for the blundering management scenario which has unfortunately unfolded.

And lo and behold, it is SAAPA who has always come to the rescue of this company. It was the pilots who got rid of Coleman, and again it is the pilots who have brought to the attention of the transnet board and gov. about the three stooges, namely Andre Viljoen, JVJ, and Jan Blake. Two have gone; one rotten apple left. Then we shall see some progress.

So the whingers who are quick to blame the pilots, should get the full story before making biased remarks, hate speech towards the ONLY hard working crowd at SAA.

Eg. When there are departmental christmas parties which run into thousands, the pilots are never invited as they are hard at work, possibly negotiating flight levels and trying to save SAA and the TAXPAYER money.

In my opinion the pilots at SAA should be given an increase, as they are the only ones who can honestly say that they've put in a full productive days work, very little though can be said about the pen pushers on the sixth floor, who've never earned an honest wage.

Have to agree. Problem of political interference and taxpayer bailout still remains.......

Now you're pushing it Gimbal :) ;)

nugpot
Nobody said there was anything wrong with SAA's crew, but every saving, even if it is just a drop in the ocean, is a saving. And salaries make up some of the drops that fill the oceans. Look around at the other airlines that are constantly cutting crew's wages. If things go well, crews make money! Unfortunatly the oppostie is true as well.

Probably a wise choice, as the pilots I know at SAA would drink most healthy companies into brankruptcy:} :} :}

126.7, Seems like you don't know many pilots at SAA?

My point is that SAA is the most public company of all. The share holders are ultimately the hardworking people of SA whose taxes SAA spend - simple. A profit is a profit and a loss is a loss. If it wasn't for the benevolance of the SA government SAA would be history. Now I do not want to see that at all, but as a capitalist I find it wrong to know that the taxes I pay go to fund what could be my competition which runs at a loss.

I have no problems with the crew at SAA, their wages or their bargaining tactics. The world is changing fast and state owned flag carriers are a thing of the past.

SAA salaries
 

One thing for sure in this industry: ANYTHING you say IS used against you!!
As for the salaries confidentality.....Only people who are embarassed by their large salaries invoke confidentiality.