In the August 18 Sunday Times; also some interesting account of the earlier dispute and its resolution.
Cheers
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SIA and pilots in talks over seat dispute
By Ahmad Osman and Dominic Nathan
DEPUTY NEWS EDITOR
The Sunday Times
18/8/2002
WITH three weeks to go before Singapore Airlines pilots can vote on taking industrial action, pressure is mounting to break the deadlock in negotiations with the airline's management.
Key officials from the Air Line Pilots Association Singapore (Alpa-S), senior human resource personnel from the company and officers from the Manpower Ministry held talks yesterday, with more scheduled for tomorrow.
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The continuing talks hold out hope that a compromise can be hammered out over what appears to be a simple disagreement over whether pilots should take their in-flight rest breaks in economy or business class seats.
Some readers have asked if the issue is serious enough to warrant industrial action that could cause costly delays and flight cancellations.
Although work to rule action is not a strike, requiring the minimum notice for changes to a pilot's roster or duties when the airline is already short of pilots, could affect flight operations.
Alpa-S contends that the issue is not about seats, but the sanctity of the collective agreement.
But SIA's management does not see the new rest arrangements as a violation of the agreement.
It maintains that with fewer business class seats available now bigger Spacebeds are being installed, all seats should be filled with paying passengers.
But the pilots argue that there is a shortage of pilots, citing the more than 10,000 days of leave owed to the SIA's 1,600 pilots. This means that flight safety could be compromised if they are not well rested.
Also, being ''exposed' in economy class might pose a security risk, as they would be further away from the cockpit in an emergency.
After several rounds of talks ended in deadlock, the resolution to hold a secret ballot on taking industrial action was carried on Friday night with an 86 per cent majority.
Expatriate pilots, of whom there are about 500, could not vote, but the resolution still received about 950 ballots at the six-hour long Alpa-S extraordinary general meeting at the Pinetree Town & Country Club.
Two other resolutions condemning the management of SIA over the termination of the services of the two SQ 006 pilots and the new seating arrangement, each won about 97 per cent of the votes.
Alpa-S officials, with the advice of lawyers, made sure they complied with every legal requirement, before going down the same road as their predecessors 22 years ago.
In 1980, it was the failure to hold a secret ballot before starting industrial action that resulted in the pilots union being de-registered.
Fourteen flights were disrupted when illegal industrial action was taken, after talks over salaries and benefits broke down.
Then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew stepped in to settle the dispute.
Three pilots were sacked. And 15 union officials, hauled to court, were given an absolute discharge after the judge ruled that they had been adequately punished by their appearances in court, the press publicity and the 'public chastisement'.
Twenty-two years on, pilots did not want to draw any parallels with the 1980 episode.
At the end of Friday's balloting, Alpa-S honorary secretary Captain Sutharsanan, said: 'If we can come to an amicable solution, then it stops there.'