Published November 8, 2008

SIA and its pilots hammer out pay deal

By VEN SREENIVASAN
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AFTER a year of tough negotiations and hard bargaining, Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its pilots have sewn up their long overdue Collective Agreement (CA), thereby narrowly avoiding landing in the Industrial Arbitration Court.

BT has learnt that the two sides reached an agreement yesterday evening, ending a year-long battle over pay, benefits and job re-scoping.

Under the new CA, which is backdated to November 2007 and runs for three years, the annual (AVC) and monthly variable components (MVC) of the salaries of pilots and first officers will be built back into their salaries.

In short, captains will have their 16.5 per cent total MVC and AVC built into their salaries, while first officers will get their 11 per cent variable component.

They will now get a standard MVC of 10 per cent just like all other SIA staffers.

The MVC and AVC of the flight crew were set up after the Sars crisis in 2003 - which sent SIA into the red during its July-September quarter. The objective was to bring salaries more in line with the fortunes of the company.

Since then, SIA's profit and performance have soared, prompting calls for these variable components to be built back into monthly salaries.



Several other contentious issues which had prevented earlier resolution of the CA - such as the company's 'cruise captain' proposal for first officers and multi-fleet piloting - were set aside.

Capt P James, the head of the Airline Pilots Association - Singapore (Alpa-S), who headed the pilots' negotiating team, said that both management and pilots decided that there was little point in dragging out the negotiations at a time when the aviation operating environment was getting increasingly challenging.

'We decided that the well-being and the financial health of the company comes first,' Capt James said. 'We can revisit the more challenging issues when we get over this turbulence.'

BT also understands that the Ministry of Manpower played a critical role in facilitating the meeting of minds between the two sides.

SIA and its pilots have a chequered history of differences over remuneration and working conditions that goes back more than two decades. The most recent showdown was in 2003/04 when proposed wage restructuring by the airline, in the face of a massive business slowdown, resulted in such wide differences that Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew had to finally step in to mediate.