Misleading Press article on SQ

[wotwazat]

The article in the Straits Times today is not harmless as stated by Thermal Image in another thread. John Barnes is correct that it misleads and confuses the public in a way detrimental to the SIA staff.

Comments were invited.

Here's one sent in by a friend, I hope you have all taken the opportunity to respond.


"Attention: - Rebecca Lee Straits Times

You have invited comments on your article “An icon in the storm”

“an SIA captain typically earning between $10,000 and $19,500 a month”
Multiply this by 12 to give per year = $120,000 to $234,000 a year.

You then say “this puts them ahead of Cathay Pacific’s pilots who are said to be near the top of the scale, earning on the average $800,000 a year.”

How can you say that 120,000 to 234,000 is ahead of 800,000?

I don’t know where you obtain your figures from but here are some from the Independent Pilots Association in the UK published in Feb 2003. (Please note that the SIA figures are not from the IPA, I have repeated your figures and added some that you can easily verify) Numbers are X S$1000
In the order :-
Airline, CaptainsBasic , F/O Basic , Bond
SIA , 120 to 234, 56 to ? , 160/5yr

Virgin Atlantic , 178 to 240, 107 to 156 , 42/3yrs

Cathay Pacific , 263.5 to 376, 108 to 204.8, Nil

Easy Jet, 168 to 197, 102 to ? , 48/3yrs

These figures speak for themselves.

Please note: -
1) Virgin Atlantic Salaries compared with SIA. SIA owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic so is certainly aware of these figures.
2) We hear much of the low cost airlines driving down costs. Easy Jet is a low cost airline, the pilots are flying small 180 seat aircraft on very low revenue earning flights yet a first year Captain earns 1.4 times as much as an SIA first year B777 Captain.
3) Cathay Pacific has no bonding. SIA has a 3.8 times higher bond than Virgin Atlantic.

You may wish to ask yourself if the fact that SIA has some of the least well paid staff in the international airline business is one of the reasons that SIA is and long has been “one of the world’s most profitable airlines”.

Whilst other airlines are trying to cut staff costs, SIA, as with so many other things are already there. Further cuts are ultimately going to erode the quality of the staff that earn the airline its profits and reputation.

SIA is not loosing money because its staff cost too much. If it is, how did SIA manage to make 1.6 billion dollars a couple of years ago? It is loosing money because it is flying far fewer passengers at the moment.

The staff are earning less money already because they are flying less. Attempting to use this sad SARS situation to drive down salaries is reprehensible.

If the Company feels it must reduce salaries to help in the short term let them undertake to repay the money saved and restore salaries to present levels when they are back in profit as they surely will be. If they are not prepared to do that then the pay cuts are exposed for what they are, an attempt to drive down salaries at a difficult time for airline staff around the world using SARS as the excuse and inflated bonding of pilots to stop them leaving.

I feel your article is very misleading in terms of the figures quoted, some of which are clearly nonsense. This warrants an apology to the people of Singapore in your next edition and a revised version of your article based on fact."

[Grant]

Wotwazat, you are spot on , your friend is correct with his figures, what's more the salary quoted for CX is I believe B scale. The A scale range is SGD $322,757 to $409,311 !

The SQ salary is pretty mediocre compared to CX QF BA and the like, the only redeeming feature is that it is performance related ie the bigger the profit the company makes, the bigger the bonus you get.

Having said that the bonus is on the base salary ie first year 777 Cpt is 9000 x 3.2 months (bonus last financial year) , less then $30000. There is however a 13th month salary as well.Even so bottom line is starting pay of $ 146,000

Year before last no bonus, next year probably no bonus as well so what are we looking at here a 3 year average of $126,000 !! Flying pay and o/n allowances will probably inc salary by another $40000 and thats it, if you don't fly you don't get it.

Now try and tell me that they are overpaid !

SQ want a 22.5% pay cut on the base salary and they are pushing for it to be non reinstateable so now (if they get their way) starting pay would be $90675 pa !!!

Try getting those figures published by Ms Lee, not a hope in hell!

[wotwazat]

Grant
Yes you are right. The only way the SIA salary was ever on a par with others was if an average of three months bonus was added.

You mention the 13th month salary. Read the collective agreement carefully and you will see that there is no garuantee that you will get that, the Company has the option to vary that payment. Could be a nice Christmas present if they take that away too.

On the present pay structure a first year B777 Captain flying 70 hours with average meal allowances will take home $14,095 before tax. If the Company has its way that will drop to $10,065, a drop of 28.6%. If you add in a drop in flying hours to 50 in the month it becomes 32.9%.

The beloved management (average basic salary $200,000 based on SIA's saving of $12 million amongst 240 of them) are taking a reduction of basic pay in the range of 22.5 to 27.5%. They are asking the pilots to take 38% reduction in basic (22.5 followed by 12 days NPL = 38%).

These are accurate figures, no ranting and raving, no anti OBS or anti local pilots, just hard facts. This is daylight robbery of people who do not have the option to go elsewhere because the company is so insecure that it has a bond that is nearly four times the industry average!

It doesn't matter how they dress it up, thay are trying to screw the pilots and are being assisted by the government (the majority shareholder) and the press. ALPAS should and must resist this and do their best to get accurate figures over to the public.

[Rockhound]

Besides Rebecca Lee's absurd claim that SQ pilots' salaries are higher than those of CX's pilots, what boggles my mind is her statement that, if the overseas-based SIA pilots were preferentially laid off, SQ "which derives 80% of its income from outside Singapore, may find itself shunned by travellers unhappy with its discriminatory labour practices".
The average airline traveller has only a vague idea of the aircraft type he/she is flying on, much less a knowledge of the airline's hiring practices.
Give me strength....:rolleyes: :{
Rockhound

[411A]

SQ pilot salaries are low because the Brits retired from BA, came to Singapore and worked a year or two. This occured in the 1970's (early 80's) because BA offered early retirements to the more senior folks...and the normal retirement age was 55.
Was a regular revolving door then.
Round about 1990, folks from down under moved in enmasse (after their abortive attempt at union action), several "ran away" not completing their contracts, so of course higher bonds are in order.
Now SQ management has an opportunity to KEEP salaries low due to the latest SARS problem, and you can bet your boots they will do so.
Some of 'em didn't go to Harvard just for the weather.

[wotwazat]

Much better coverage in Straits Times today. ALPA-S getting the point across better and Miss Lee reporting it accurately.

Hope ALPA-S are able to persist with demand to know how SIA arrived at the reductions they seek. Not sure if they are from a Harvard text book, back of a fag packet or pulled out of a Generals hat!

The up-turn has already started, be a sad state of affairs if the SIA pilots end up back on the salaries they had two and a half years ago just as SIA cashes in on the boom in back log business travel closely followed by the "thank god it's all over, time for a holiday" rush.

If anybody out there knows what the senior management get in terms of basic salary, bonus, directors fees, share options, travel industry perks etc etc could you please let us know. Also interested to know if they intend to return to their previous salaries after their voluntary reductions or will any recovery in their pay closely match those of the rest of the staff?

New Company Motto

" Fly SIA if you only want get 77.5 % of the way"

[highcirrus]

Yes even the Strait Lies is now reporting the start of the upturn and a pent up demand particularly in the business sector.

I assume, however, that SIA management will continue to pursue its government instigated demand that it trim salary costs to “remain competitive with other world class carriers who have already started such measures”.

Could the Strait Lies perhaps provide details of these other carriers and the measures that have already been put in place?