Disappointed at the ruling, the unions involved in the strike were still deciding whether to appeal.

The ruling defined SAA as being outside of the dispute. This was a technical conclusion reached on the basis of SAA’s non membership of the Transnet bargaining council.

"We argued that restructuring is a subject being dealt with at the level of Transnet, and not SAA, and therefore the appropriate dispute mechanism was through the Transnet bargaining council rather than direct to any one Transnet company," the unions said.

They said the ruling did not prevent them from giving notice of intention to embark on a sympathy strike.

"We will now be issuing notices to all Transnet companies not covered by the bargaining council, including SAA and Autopax. Workers in these companies will join all further actions.

"The unions will jointly be announcing their intended continued programme of action after Thursday this week," they said in a statement.

The unions are the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union, the SA Railway and Harbour Workers Union, the United Association of SA, and the United Transport and Allied Trade Union.

Transnet is seeking to privatise some businesses or parts of business units, resulting in SAA, Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl being moved out of Transnet. However, they will remain publicly owned.

Union members went on a three-day strike in KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State last week.

They plan to strike in the other provinces later this month.