This article was published on January 2, 2009 in a Hong Kong newspaper!! This is great stuff!!!!
Hey, Sebastian, spend that 5000RMB you received this month wisely!!! Might be the last you get...
Aviators train sights on flying school boss
Timothy Chui
Friday, January 02, 2009
The former head of the Hong Kong Government Flying Service is at the center of a brewing row with aviators at the mainland's biggest privately owned aviation academy.
In an anonymous letter sent to The Standard, foreign flying instructors at the Beijing Pan Am International Aviation Academy accuse Brian Butt Yiu-ming of driving a wedge between management and instructors, breaches of contract and racial discrimination.
They also allege humiliating treatment has resulted in the number of instructors dropping from 100 when the academy was formed in 2004 to about seven at present.
They say the academy's Shijiazhuang, Handan, Bautou and Beijing bases are losing 400,000 yuan (HK$454,000) a day and that official operations ceased on December 22.
Butt said most grievances were due to a lack of resources and financial support rather than his style of management.
He insisted that the academy still employs 50 mainland and overseas instructors and that the cut from 100 was to reduce wastage.
He said although the school had stopped taking new students it would continue to operate until the current batch of 300 students graduate.
Butt said that the company had shortlisted two potential investors who were now going through its books.
In their letter the instructors said Butt was "penny wise and pound foolish."
"But our parent-company AIG thinks that he is doing a good job and thinks he deserves to be awarded shares. If only the American taxpayers knew where their tax money is going," they said.
They allege salaries were not paid on time, if at all, and that when pay day did arrive they were subjected to humiliating pay ceremonies where salaries were publicly announced before being handed out.
They claim academy support for visas, insurance and hotel accommodation, previously provided for by contract, were reduced or eliminated and that promises of housing allowances never materialized.
The instructors also say Butt had refused Chinese flight licenses to Jamaican, Israeli and Italian flight instructors claiming their countries were on the Civil Aviation Authority of China's warning list. Inquiries revealed there was no such list.
The three instructors later obtained their licenses from CAAC through the actions of academy director Peter Whang.
Butt's management was described as curtailing rights and benefits, forcing staff to decide between a pay cut or leaving at their own expense including contract penalties for early self-termination.
A petition by some teaching staff was forwarded to the company's board of directors in November calling for Butt's removal. However, a reply from managing director of AIG Investments and BPA board of directors member Peter Whang asked instructors to work with Butt while the school seeks emergency funding.
Tuition at the mainland flight academy for a 14-month course costs just under HK$660,000.