kineticknife
Of course all pilots accepting contracts here examine the terms carefully before they sign. The SIA contract is poor basic pay (by international wide body standards) but acceptable to those that agree to come here because pay is not so bad if you fly 70+ hours and bonus history suggests 3 months on average.
Nowhere does the contract suggest that you only get your basic pay if the company makes a profit above a certain level. Neither does it suggest that the Company will ignore the agreement when it suites and force pay down to reduce losses that are in no way connected to individual performance in the job.
Any company has the right to change the terms of a future contract. Thus SIA and ALPA-S will have to agree on the terms of the next agreement due in December. If there is a requirement for a change in the pay structure to go along with a declared government policy then that is the place and time to address these issues. Similarly, SIA has every right to change the terms of new contracts or renewed contracts because the person involved has the free choice to accept or reject that contract. What is unreasonable is to change a current contract that the individual has no option to refuse because he is bonded and even less able to clear the bond because his earnings are being reduced.
The talk of getting rid of overseas based pilots is irrelevant. I agree that if the company wants to reduce pilot numbers then overseas based should go first, followed by expats in Singapore and lastly nationals. Nobody can seriously argue with that and it would be the same with any airline anywhere in the world.
The point is that SIA are not really interested in saving money here. They can sack 120 overseas pilots with 3 months notice and do that. What they are after is to reduce the pay of all of their pilots and keep it there . They must be delighted that attention is drawn away from that by all this talk of getting rid of OSB pilots. This has allowed them to claim some virtue in the press by saying "we are fair and responsible, we treat all of our employees equally".
All SIA pilots, be they ALPA-S members, OBS, expat or even management pilots should demand that whatever measures are taken should be agreed under the terms of the agreements and contracts that are presently in place. If a saving of 22.5% is needed then make it 22.5%. Don't add on NPL and reduced flying hours to make it a real 38%.
If SIA have to go a few hundred million dollars into the red for once so be it. How many other major airlines have never had to do that? When SIA is one billion in profit you don't hear the staff saying "hey, we need to talk about more pay". Why not? Because the Company would say, quite rightly " sorry guys we have an agreement that is in place till xxxx. We'll talk when we negotiate the next agreement"
How come it doesn't work the same way when the boot is on the other foot?