Solidarity gives thumbs up to Safair Holdings, Harith Aviation merger

Solidarity trade union says they are in support of Harith Aviation’s proposed acquisition of Safair Holdings.

This comes as the Competition Tribunal on Monday heard oral arguments on the acquisition that would give Harith ownership of South Africa’s largest domestic airline, FlySafair.

Last month, the Competition Commission recommended that the merger be approved, subject to conditions.

The trade union says they welcome the merger after receiving assurances that there would be no merger-related retrenchments.

Solidarity’s Deputy General Secretary Helgard Cronjé says, “In this specific case, Harith indicated in the initial application that there would be no retrenchments or merger related entrenchments, but there was a footnote in the application that indicated that the merger-related retrenchment is not defined as voluntary severance packages, et cetera, and after that we met with them and they made it clear that there would not be any form of merger-related retrenchment, not even voluntaries.

So we supported it on that basis.” VIDEO | Harith General Partners buys FlySafair: