SIA Unions, Including Pilots, Accept Need For Wage Cuts.
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SIA Unions, Including Pilots, Accept Need For Wage Cuts.
SIA unions accept need for wage cuts
They agree to the cost-cutting measure, but want management to declare 'trigger points' at which the reductions would end
By Rebecca Lee
TRANSPORT REPORTER
SINGAPORE Airlines' (SIA) five unions have accepted the need for wage cuts - but they want management to declare clear trigger points at which the reductions would end.
Leaders of the unions - which represent SIA's non-managerial employees - delivered this message to the airline yesterday.
Among them was the powerful pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S), which had hitherto appeared reluctant to agree to having its members' salaries slashed.
Though comprising just 12 per cent of the staff, the pilots' earnings make up 25 to 30 per cent of the wage bill.
Yesterday, an Alpa-S spokesman told The Straits Times that after being given details of the company's financial state last Friday, the unions understood why SIA was calling for wage cuts.
SIA saw its profits dive 88 per cent to $135 million for the six months to Sept 30.
And SIA's management, in an effort to reduce costs, had accepted wage cuts of 7 to 15 per cent, and had proposed that pilots give up 7 per cent of their salaries and the rest of the staff sacrifice 5 per cent.
The Alpa-S spokesman, who declined to be named, said: 'We are agreeable to wage cuts - with two trigger points.'
He explained that these 'trigger points' were two levels of profit at which the company should first reduce by half, and then end the cuts.
He declined to say what these trigger points were as they were still being negotiated. He also would not say how deep the cuts the unions would agree to.
The pilots' union, which represents the majority of SIA's 1,600 pilots, had earlier resisted wage cuts.
It had offered a counter-proposal under which members would give up or accept deferment of their one-month variable annual wage supplement, payable in December.
Yesterday, when SIA chief executive Cheong Choong Kong met Alpa-S and SIA's other unions, he 'clearly did not respond to it very well', the Alpa-S spokesman said, referring to the deferred-bonus proposal.
'Subsequently, the unions adjourned, discussed, made a common stand and made a counter-proposal to the company,' he said, adding that it was now up to the SIA management to respond.
Yesterday, SIA declined to comment on the negotiations, saying: 'As a matter of policy, we do not comment on ongoing discussions with unions.'
They agree to the cost-cutting measure, but want management to declare 'trigger points' at which the reductions would end
By Rebecca Lee
TRANSPORT REPORTER
SINGAPORE Airlines' (SIA) five unions have accepted the need for wage cuts - but they want management to declare clear trigger points at which the reductions would end.
Leaders of the unions - which represent SIA's non-managerial employees - delivered this message to the airline yesterday.
Among them was the powerful pilots' union, the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S), which had hitherto appeared reluctant to agree to having its members' salaries slashed.
Though comprising just 12 per cent of the staff, the pilots' earnings make up 25 to 30 per cent of the wage bill.
Yesterday, an Alpa-S spokesman told The Straits Times that after being given details of the company's financial state last Friday, the unions understood why SIA was calling for wage cuts.
SIA saw its profits dive 88 per cent to $135 million for the six months to Sept 30.
And SIA's management, in an effort to reduce costs, had accepted wage cuts of 7 to 15 per cent, and had proposed that pilots give up 7 per cent of their salaries and the rest of the staff sacrifice 5 per cent.
The Alpa-S spokesman, who declined to be named, said: 'We are agreeable to wage cuts - with two trigger points.'
He explained that these 'trigger points' were two levels of profit at which the company should first reduce by half, and then end the cuts.
He declined to say what these trigger points were as they were still being negotiated. He also would not say how deep the cuts the unions would agree to.
The pilots' union, which represents the majority of SIA's 1,600 pilots, had earlier resisted wage cuts.
It had offered a counter-proposal under which members would give up or accept deferment of their one-month variable annual wage supplement, payable in December.
Yesterday, when SIA chief executive Cheong Choong Kong met Alpa-S and SIA's other unions, he 'clearly did not respond to it very well', the Alpa-S spokesman said, referring to the deferred-bonus proposal.
'Subsequently, the unions adjourned, discussed, made a common stand and made a counter-proposal to the company,' he said, adding that it was now up to the SIA management to respond.
Yesterday, SIA declined to comment on the negotiations, saying: 'As a matter of policy, we do not comment on ongoing discussions with unions.'
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Brisbane
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Having read the adds for commanders with SQ in Flight International, and then doing the currency coversion makes SQ one of the lowest paid expat jobs in Asia. now they are going to give pilots a pay cut. Remember you are paid NOT to live in your country of origin. Good luck.
