Unfortunately I was away during the Safety Attitude Survey Briefing Session of 11 July 2001 but I’ve spoken with a number of colleagues who were present and who’ve been able to give me a fair idea of what was said during the course of the Session.
I was pleased to hear the generally favourable comment on EVPT Lt Gen L.G.Bey’s performance and the judgement that not only does he come across as a very nice person but that he is intelligent, articulate and open-minded – hopefully such obvious talent will extend to an aptitude for thought “outside the box” and, for once in SQ’s life, innovative and positive change to the pilots’ welfare benefits may arise. I heard similar sentiments expressed in respect of ALPA-S President, Captain Mok’s performance – does this bode well for future dialogue and pay negotiation between the two of them or will the weight of past events and feelings overwhelm them? Time will tell and we can only but lend them our full support.
Which leads me on to what I understand were the key components of Professor Bob Helmreich’s analysis of the questionnaire data which most of us sent in.
The analysis demonstrates the following points:
1. Belief that Flt Ops management is doing a good job is virtually zero
2. Trust in Flt Ops management is again virtually zero
3. Pilot morale is rock bottom
4. Pilots generally believe in the SQ system of meritocracy (approx 80%)
5. Few pilots believe that Flt Ops management administer this system in a fair and transparent manner (3% do!! – who are they??)
6. Most pilots enjoy their job (despite the exigencies provided by SQ)
If there are more pertinent points, please post them and if I have made mistakes in the above, please correct me.
On point 4. above. For what it’s worth, my own view is that SQ may again like to consider the idea of command selection of FO’s on the basis of seniority and that during the evaluation of the individual’s overall worth (including flying and command potential), his “merit report”, as collated under a new, fair and transparent system, may duly be taken into account. Iconoclasts can relax – meritocracy still has its place but it’s considered in an equally fair queuing system and my suggestion goes some way towards heading off the present situation whereby sycophant robots need only apply – a form of authoritarian control now, hopefully, to be consigned to the “dustbin of history”.
I have used the expression before, in relation to the Flt Ops management, when commenting on the SQ006 imbroglio, but is the above survey finding, again, not the most damning indictment of past collective performance and a personal testament to DFO Captain Maurice de Vaz’s 20 years of shear arrogance, obtuse prevarication, opaque manoeuvring, closed mindedness and the cynical greed of one who has profited at the expense of those he calls his good friends and colleagues and whom he thanks for 30+ years of wonderful flying and comradeship? Please, do not further embarrass us Maurice, just quietly go!
Moving on, I believe that, following professor Helmreich’s presentation, General Bey then addressed the audience – first subject, the ongoing serious pilot shortage (wholly of Maurice de Vaz’s making and the first time that I’ve ever heard of that it’s been publicly acknowledged by SQ!)). I believe that he adroitly spelled out the impact of this situation on the annual leave backlog scandal with the suggestion that we consider extra flying in lieu of SQ cancelling flights due to lack of crews, the adverse effect of which would be felt by the pilots when reflecting on next year’s resulting paltry bonus. I feel sure that General Bey understands, in his inner heart, that an appeal for pilots to fly beyond their contracted 900 hours per year, as a way of relieving roster pressure and thus allowing certain pilots to take leave, really is a non-starter – nice try anyway and I know he’s picking up the pieces but the mess is wholly of SQ’s making, not the pilots’.
If ALPA-S considers the sale of leave a viable temporary measure to alleviate present and particular hardships, then this is another matter and will hopefully be discussed in the context of a return, as other colleagues have mentioned on this thread, of our former 6% annual increment, the temporary foregoing of which (as I understood it) was to assist the Company in the face of an apparent financial storm, which, in the event, never materialised and indeed paved the way towards record profits.
I believe the General continued by outlining the Airline’s 7-point plan to mitigate the now official crew shortage and I’ve heard the ones listed below - can anyone fill in the gaps?
1. Pilots fly extra hours (as above and I hope they make the suggestion as a temporary measure!).
2. Growth restricted to 2% per annum instead of 6-8%
3. Reduce frequencies on selected services presently operated
4. Train selected senior FO’s to “cruise captain” capability, allowing a return to “three man crew” operation (there Maurice, it was easy after all!).
5. Discuss with CAAS raising the retirement age (colleagues are not sure if they heard this correctly)
6. TBA
7. TBA
I understand that he did not, however, mention what is as “plain as a pikestaff” to all of us - that is for SQ to increase the cash to a level comparable with the remuneration compensated by SQ’s global competitors and, further, bring staff travel into the twenty first century!!
Then morale would certainly take a climb and word of this effect, by phone, fax, e-mail, pprune and face to face will be the thing that brings in pilots – nothing else and certainly not exhortations to patiently await change – we’ve heard them all before and we now need clear demonstrations of good faith and an equally clear recognition of the “off balance sheet” priceless asset that the Airline holds, as collectively represented by it’s used and abused flight crews.
I do believe general Bey is the man to provide them, more especially as I understand that, as a preamble, he actually admitted to his audience that SQ pay was not good and that he was therefore relying on what he called “hygiene factors” to increase job satisfaction.
Pay us properly General and treat us with respect and you won’t be able to recognise the airline 12 months from now!
As a footnote, I’m told that a member of the old guard, the newly appointed CP B777, characteristically stalked into the Session late, sat wordless as an “éminence grise” throughout and finally left, having made no contribution. Explanation for this behaviour seems to be split between an ongoing sulk over failure to be awarded Maurice’s job or just a plain old bad hair day!
I know that such an important man is always much too busy to turn up on time – but we really do need the clearest manifestations, by management, of an attempt at a new, egalitarian approach to leadership and an eschewing of the privileged, patrician arrogance of old.