South African Airways (SAA) has reached an agreement with trade union Satawu, who have called off industrial action at the airline with effect from Sunday evening.

An agreement to this effect was signed between SAA and Satawu officials at Airways Park in Johannesburg this evening.

SAA has undertaken to halt the outsourcing of its Voyager and Reservations call centres to Dimension Data, pending further discussions with labour. As such, SAA has agreed that it will not transfer the call centre staff to Dimension Data tomorrow, 1 December 2008.

SAA General Manager of Human Resources Bhabhalazi Bulunga has welcomed the agreement, saying the airline is committed to restoring relations with labour.

“It was encouraging that SAA and Satawu were able to focus on ending the industrial action and commit to working constructively in the future, says Bulunga.

The two parties further agreed that they would seriously engage each other with a view to restoring relations to normal, and finding a longer term solution to resolving the dispute.

Despite numerous delayed flights at Port Elizabeth airport, SAA says it experienced no flight delays due to the industrial action over the weekend and the airline’s flight schedule and general operations continue as normal.