Straits Times, 28.02.04
SM MEETS PILOTS: THE MEETING
Overseas-based pilots are 'a thorn in our flesh'
On Thursday, after a meeting with Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore Airlines pilots told the media they wanted to cooperate with management and move on. REBECCA LEE gives more details on the various issues raised at the two-hour meeting attended by 14 pilots.
SINGAPORE Airlines' overseas-based pilots are a 'thorn in the flesh' to union members, bemoaned the pilots' association during its meeting with Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Thursday.
Singapore-based pilots were unhappy with them not because of their bigger pay packets, but because they were costing the company too much money, which could be easily saved by finding other ways of hiring pilots.
Members of the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S) who met SM Lee at the Istana on Thursday also lamented the unfair way routes were distributed.
The overseas-based pilots could 'cherry-pick' the routes they flew and took the lucrative long-haul routes, leaving their Singapore-based counterparts with 'scraps'.
Pilots get bigger allowances on longer routes, which are also considered more prestigious.
The unhappiness over overseas-based pilots was raised when SM Lee asked the 14 pilots of Alpa-S to tell him their grievances.
Alpa-S president Mok Hin Choon said they could not see the logic in SIA continuing to employ overseas-based pilots, who now cost the airline 15 to 20 per cent more than locally-based ones.
This was due to currency conversion and the various allowances they get, he said, based on the calculations the union had made.
SIA started a wholly-owned subsidiary in Mauritius in 1997 when it expanded rapidly and needed to fill its cockpits faster than it could train its pilots.
It recruited about 120 pilots overseas through this company and based them in London, Los Angeles, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth, instead of here.
These pilots are not represented by Alpa-S, which counts 1,600 of SIA's 1,800 pilots - who hail from 40 countries - as its members.
Captain Mok said the strengthening of certain foreign currencies, such as the pound, over the past few years meant that the overseas-based pilots cost the airline more now.
The pilots produced a chart to show that hiring a foreign pilot and basing him in Singapore is cheaper than relying on the scheme.
Capt Mok also highlighted the practical difficulties of having such overseas-based pilots.
For example, sometimes a Singapore-based pilot has to take a flight up to London to 'position' himself there so that he can pilot an aircraft back to Singapore, as the overseas-based pilot will have returned home to London where he is based.
'At one point in time, it really frustrated us more because they were cherry-picking the flights,' Capt Mok added.
For instance, these pilots would pick the flights from Singapore to London or Singapore to Frankfurt, which were popular routes.
'And they would leave us with all the scraps,' he said.
While SM Lee listened to their complaints, he also expressed surprise that the management could have acted in a way that did not benefit the company in terms of cost-savings.
'Surely they can't be that daft,' he said.
The discussion also turned to the rostering of pilots which appeared to cause much grief among those present.
Who was in charge, SM Lee demanded to know, his voicing rising a little.
Flight operations division, came the reply.
'If all this is true, then the flight operations must be blind or stupid!' said SM Lee.
Asked if the airline could easily sack these pilots, the Alpa-S members said there could be issues with European Union regulations.
SM Lee then asked the pilots for a list of their cost comparisons so he could study them.
He pointed out to them that if the overseas-based pilots now cost more than when the scheme started because of currency fluctuations, the company might not have foreseen the foreign exchange risks.
This was something every business had to deal with, he said.
The pilots went on to tell him that the overseas-based pilots made up just one instance in which they had tried to talk with the management and offer better ideas on how to save money.
But often management would not be interested in listening to them, complained one.
Unhappiness regarding the overseas-based pilots first surfaced publicly last May when the airline announced wage cuts and unpaid leave to stem the financial bleeding from the Sars outbreak.
SIA defended the scheme. It said the overseas-based pilots saved the company about $100,000 a year per pilot, as it did not have to pay housing and other allowances to base them here.
Disagreeing with its decision to apply the wage cuts across the board then, the Singapore-based pilots wanted the overseas-based pilots to be laid off first, given the excess supply of pilots at that time.
They had said that the overseas-based pilots were not employees of SIA, but merely seconded to the company.
However, SIA maintained at that time that it had to be even-handed or it would not be able to recruit foreign pilots when times were good again.