Johannesburg — EFFORTS by South African Airways (SAA) to retrench some of its employees, including pilots and senior managers, received a boost on Friday when the Labour Court dismissed with costs an urgent application brought by the airline's powerful pilots' union.

This was the second time in three months that the national carrier had won a court battle against trade unions that are opposed to the retrenchment of their members or the alteration of their conditions of employment.

In July, the Labour Court rejected an urgent application by the South African Airways Management Association (Saama) to stop the airline from retrenching 30% of its senior management team. Saama claimed that SAA wanted to dismiss the managers "without complying with fair procedure". The application was rejected with costs.

On Friday, the Labour Court dismissed with costs an urgent application brought by the SAA Pilots' Association (Saapa ) over the closing date of the voluntary severance packages that SAA had offered to its staff.

The pilots's union, which represents more than 800 members, had applied for an indefinite postponement of the voluntary severance packages offer until a dispute it had declared against SAA was heard by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. The closing date for employees who wanted to take the voluntary severance packages was Friday.

SAA said the dispute related to the "Over 50s contract" which allows senior pilots to retire from the airline and take out their pension. The contract allows pilots to come back as SAA employees whose terms and conditions of employment are not affected by their retirement status.

But Saapa sought to allow its members to apply for retirement under the contract and still qualify for voluntary severance packages on the basis of the period of service starting from when they were first employed, SAA said.