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On Wednesday, trade union Solidarity filed urgent court papers with the Labour Court in Johannesburg for an interdict against South African Airways Technical (SAAT), the technical division of SAA. The purpose of the interdict is to prevent SAAT from filling four senior aviation technician jobs (senior Licensed Aviation Technicians) regarding which Solidarity has been engaged in legal action against the airline since last year.
 
This follows after SAAT began taking steps to fill four vacancies previously reserved for black candidates on the grounds of affirmative action. However, three white men who were temporarily employed to act in some of these positions, have been overlooked and they have not been considered for permanent positions, purely because of their skin colour. Furthermore, there were no suitable black candidates to fill these positions. Solidarity has been involved in a lawsuit with the SAAT regarding this matter for almost a year and maintains that these posts should not be filled prior to obtaining legal certainty.
 
‘SAAT shows no respect for the court process taking place. It wants to force its racial plan through at all costs and as quickly as possible, and it is not even prepared to wait for legal certainty. The zeal with which it is trying to enforce quotas in an absolute way – in training (referring to SAA's cadet programme) and employment – only makes us more determined to go ahead with the trial. Apparently, the SAA does not realize that it is doing something wrong. The fact that it would fill these positions while the court case is still to come, shows that it will continue if not prevented to do so by the court,’ said Dirk Groenewald, head of Solidarity’s Centre for Fair Labour Practices.
 
Last year, Solidarity referred a case of unfair discrimination based on race on behalf of three of its members to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). The CCMA referred the matter to the Labour Court.
 
Meanwhile, SAAT advertised four posts that had earlier been reserved for black candidates. In three letters to the SAAT, the trade union demanded that these posts, in which the three candidates had been acting in, should not be filled because Solidarity and SAAT were involved in a court case on the issue.
 
‘It is clear to us that the entire SAA group was determined to implement racial quotas left, right and centre, without considering the merits of each candidate,’ said Groenewald.
 
The request for an interdict comes just a month after the trade union resumed its public campaign against the South African Airways (SAA) because the airline had admitted no white male candidates to its cadet programme.