Interim agreement is in line with deal for SIA senior officials
By VEN SREENIVASAN
 | Email this article |
 | Print article |
 | Feedback |
(SINGAPORE) Singapore Airlines pilots have agreed to one day's compulsory unpaid leave per month under an interim deal brokered by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM).
The decision comes after more than a week of tough negotiations between the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S) and SIA over the latter's call for captains to take three days' compulsory unpaid leave per month and first officers to take four days a month.
The pilots refused, saying cost-cutting was a company-wide issue and the burden should not fall disproportionately on them. They insisted that however many days' leave they were asked to take should be in line with what was asked of SIA senior officials.
SIA managers and administrative officers are taking one day a month - either as unpaid leave or from their annual leave.
In-principle agreement has also been reached with two unions - Singapore Airlines Staff Union and the Airline Executive Staff Union - for other ground workers and cabin crew to go on on the shorter work month scheme from today.
  |
'Cost cuts should not be borne by the pilots alone,' said Alpa-S president Captain P James. 'No one is to blame for what has happened and no one could have foreseen the severity of the financial storm. There is no doubt we have excess capacity and things are tough. But that said, the whole company has to pull together to face the challenge.'
MOM appears to have bridged the gulf - albeit temporarily - between SIA and its 1,800 pilots.
'We accepted this to show our solidarity with the rest of the company,' said Capt James. 'But this is just an interim solution, and we hope a final solution which is acceptable to all is found in due course.'
Alpa-S held an extraordinary council meeting last night to endorse the MOM proposal.
SIA, which is parking planes and slashing capacity amid a sharp downturn in which passenger loads have fallen to almost 70 per cent and cargo loads to less than 60 per cent.
It has already put 50 cargo pilots on unpaid leave and is grounding 17 planes, cutting some 11 per cent of capacity this year.
SIA carried just 1.28 million passengers in March - a 23 per cent drop from March last year.
Having forced staff to take unpaid leave, analysts believe SIA may have to resort to layoffs if operating conditions continue to deteriorate.
Separately, on the swine flu front, SIA said it is closely monitoring the situation.
As a gesture of goodwill, it is waiving cancellation and itinerary change fees on a worldwide basis. The waiver is valid for tickets issued prior to April 28 for travel up to and including May 27 on SIA flights only.
Customers may change the routing of their journey, defer the date of travel until Oct 31 or cancel, without penalty. Any change of date or routing will be charged at the new fare for that journey less the fare for the journey paid, with no amendment fee. For example, if travel is in a higher class, or deferred to a higher season, the seasonal fare difference will still apply.
The same conditions will apply to KrisFlyer redemption tickets.
No comments:
Post a Comment