SIA staff to take 10% pay cut....
12,000 SIA staff to take 10% pay cut after carrier posts loss in Q1
By Timothy Ouyang, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 30 July 2009 2141 hrs
SINGAPORE: An estimated 12,000 non-management staff at Singapore Airlines (SIA) will take a pay cut of 10 per cent for at least three months starting from August 1.
This comes after the carrier posted a S$271 million loss at the company level in the first quarter.
As a group, SIA's net loss was S$307.1 million for the three months ended June 30, compared to a net profit of S$358.6 million a year earlier.
Under current union agreements, a pay cut is automatically triggered if the airline suffers a net loss of S$50 million at the company level in any given quarter.
The quantum is determined by the amount of losses. The pay cuts start at 2.5 per cent if the carrier loses S$50 million at the company level, and go up to as much as 10 per cent if the losses exceed S$200 million.
The 10 per cent pay cut involves non-managerial staff, as managerial staff have already taken pay cuts ranging from 10 to 20 per cent, according to an SIA spokesman.
Channel NewsAsia understands the bulk of those affected comprise cabin crew, pilots and ground staff employed in Singapore.
The SIA spokesman told Channel NewsAsia that the pay reduction may continue beyond November even if the carrier posts a profit in the second quarter. This is because the losses are calculated accumulatively throughout the financial year.