South African Airways (SAA) says the first day of normal operations went smoothly as workers returned to work Saturday, following an eight-day wage strike which ended with a deal between management and unions on Friday, 22 November 2019.

Employees affiliated to unions, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the South African Cabin Crew Association (Sacca) were demanding an 8% salary increase.

On Friday, the unions and SAA management came to an agreement of a 5.9% pay increase retrospective to April this year.

Numsa and Sacca say the remaining 2.1% that workers have been demanding is subject to the work of an appointed task team.

SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali said, “All our flights in the domestic segment, with the exception of our flights to East London, are operating. All our flights to all destinations on the continent are operating with the exception of Livingston. All our flights internationally, as we indicated during the week, are also operating.