SIA pilots stand its grounds....MOM to help !
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Highcirrus..
You beat me to it... Too bad little god can't comprehend the serious situation in compromising SQ frontline crew morale.. Disgusting as usual... For those of you who wish to read the entire article of "I publish whatever my boss wants" newspaper here's the link:
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/top...95405,00.html?
Now the next move.. Isn't SIA 56percent owned by Temasek Holding aka Singapore Government??? Let's just be civil servants then, in bad times little or no cut, good times double digit percentile pay increase.
You beat me to it... Too bad little god can't comprehend the serious situation in compromising SQ frontline crew morale.. Disgusting as usual... For those of you who wish to read the entire article of "I publish whatever my boss wants" newspaper here's the link:
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/top...95405,00.html?
Now the next move.. Isn't SIA 56percent owned by Temasek Holding aka Singapore Government??? Let's just be civil servants then, in bad times little or no cut, good times double digit percentile pay increase.
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Hey!!! It costs money to get people good enough to think up such imaginative schemes to shaft the general population u know.... u think it's easy? 
I couldn't believe it when I read the front page today!!!
This is a sad day for SIA/singaporeans in general. Now more than ever, I hang my head in shame and disgust.
I couldn't believe it when I read the front page today!!!
This is a sad day for SIA/singaporeans in general. Now more than ever, I hang my head in shame and disgust.
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Below is a letter I submitted to the Straitened Times by e-mail on June 18. I sent a copy by snail mail to Mr Chew Choon Seng, CEO of SIA. Predictably(?), I received a rejection slip from the ST this morning, expressing regret that due to the large volume of mail they receive, they can only publish a small fraction of the letters.
I'm curious to know if anyone who wrote to the ST taking Ms Lee to task for peddling misinformation on SQ pilots' salaries got any satisfaction in the form of a retraction or correction.
Rockhound
The Editor
The Straits Times
Singapore
Dear Sir,
I am an enthusiastic air traveller and maintain a keen interest in civil aviation, an interest which has steadily grown and developed since boyhood, although I am not connected in any way with the airline industry. I have had the good fortune to fly with Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s premier airlines, on a number of occasions. It is with mounting concern that I read of the current labour dispute between SIA and its pilots, specifically the draconian pay cuts the company is demanding, the misinformation being disseminated in the pages of your newspaper, and the decision to have the issue settled by an arbitratror.
For an SIA Captain, the reduction in pay, in the form of cuts in basic pay and compulsory unpaid leave, demanded by the company, approaches, and may even exceed 40%. Not even in my own country of Canada, has the national (but privatised) airline Air Canada, so financially strapped it is operating under bankruptcy protection, tried to exact such a price from its employees in order to reduce labour costs. The cut could result in a Boeing 777 Captain, newly promoted from Senior First Officer on the Boeing 747, earning less than he did in his previous position - clearly ludicrous.
The assertion by your writer, Rebecca Lee, in the Insight column of May 31, that SIA pilots are among the most highly paid in the industry is simply false. In reality, their basic pay falls significantly below that of their counterparts in major airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Qantas in Asia, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic in Europe, and all the large international carriers in USA. It is precisely to redress that imbalance that SIA have traditionally awarded their pilots a substantial annual bonus, when, in SIA’s eyes, profits permitted.
Although SIA pilots are well paid relative to the general public, their remuneration must be considered in the light of their skill and expertise, honed by years of training and thousands of flying hours in every kind of weather, on which, in the course of just one flight, the safety of hundreds of passengers and a $100 million-plus aircraft depend. In the case of the SQ 006 tragedy at Taipei in October, 2000, one error - taking a wrong turn off the taxiway - on a dark, rainy, windswept night at an inadequately-lit and -signed airport, led to a takeoff from a closed runway and the loss of 83 lives and the wrecking of the flying careers of two fine pilots. And SIA, in an apparent desperate attempt to avoid reporting a loss for the current financial year, wants to permanently slash their pilots’ pay by more than a third?
On a practical level, how can this swingeing pay cut do anything other than seriously lower crew morale and adversely affect the flight deck environment, with all the attendant implications for safety in the air and on the ground? I can readily imagine the retrenchment a 40% reduction in my pay would precipitate. I have been to Singapore four times and am well aware that the cost-of-living is higher there than in Canada.
As I understand it, there were just four meetings over the space of two weeks between SIA and its pilots’ union, Alpa-S, before an impasse was reached, with neither side shifting from its position, and the dispute turned over for a final and legally binding decision by the Industrial Arbitration Court, whose record of impartiality does not exactly shine. Is this a fair and equitable resolution of the dispute?
In her May 31 article, Ms Lee wrote of SIA’s fear that, were they to cut their non-unionised, overseas-based pilots first (as demanded by Alpa-S), they might find themselves boycotted by travellers unhappy with their unfair labour practices. I submit that, with the savage pay cut they are attempting to impose on their pilots, Singapore Airlines may find that the chickens have already come home to roost.
Yours, etc.
I'm curious to know if anyone who wrote to the ST taking Ms Lee to task for peddling misinformation on SQ pilots' salaries got any satisfaction in the form of a retraction or correction.
Rockhound
The Editor
The Straits Times
Singapore
Dear Sir,
I am an enthusiastic air traveller and maintain a keen interest in civil aviation, an interest which has steadily grown and developed since boyhood, although I am not connected in any way with the airline industry. I have had the good fortune to fly with Singapore Airlines, one of the world’s premier airlines, on a number of occasions. It is with mounting concern that I read of the current labour dispute between SIA and its pilots, specifically the draconian pay cuts the company is demanding, the misinformation being disseminated in the pages of your newspaper, and the decision to have the issue settled by an arbitratror.
For an SIA Captain, the reduction in pay, in the form of cuts in basic pay and compulsory unpaid leave, demanded by the company, approaches, and may even exceed 40%. Not even in my own country of Canada, has the national (but privatised) airline Air Canada, so financially strapped it is operating under bankruptcy protection, tried to exact such a price from its employees in order to reduce labour costs. The cut could result in a Boeing 777 Captain, newly promoted from Senior First Officer on the Boeing 747, earning less than he did in his previous position - clearly ludicrous.
The assertion by your writer, Rebecca Lee, in the Insight column of May 31, that SIA pilots are among the most highly paid in the industry is simply false. In reality, their basic pay falls significantly below that of their counterparts in major airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Qantas in Asia, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic in Europe, and all the large international carriers in USA. It is precisely to redress that imbalance that SIA have traditionally awarded their pilots a substantial annual bonus, when, in SIA’s eyes, profits permitted.
Although SIA pilots are well paid relative to the general public, their remuneration must be considered in the light of their skill and expertise, honed by years of training and thousands of flying hours in every kind of weather, on which, in the course of just one flight, the safety of hundreds of passengers and a $100 million-plus aircraft depend. In the case of the SQ 006 tragedy at Taipei in October, 2000, one error - taking a wrong turn off the taxiway - on a dark, rainy, windswept night at an inadequately-lit and -signed airport, led to a takeoff from a closed runway and the loss of 83 lives and the wrecking of the flying careers of two fine pilots. And SIA, in an apparent desperate attempt to avoid reporting a loss for the current financial year, wants to permanently slash their pilots’ pay by more than a third?
On a practical level, how can this swingeing pay cut do anything other than seriously lower crew morale and adversely affect the flight deck environment, with all the attendant implications for safety in the air and on the ground? I can readily imagine the retrenchment a 40% reduction in my pay would precipitate. I have been to Singapore four times and am well aware that the cost-of-living is higher there than in Canada.
As I understand it, there were just four meetings over the space of two weeks between SIA and its pilots’ union, Alpa-S, before an impasse was reached, with neither side shifting from its position, and the dispute turned over for a final and legally binding decision by the Industrial Arbitration Court, whose record of impartiality does not exactly shine. Is this a fair and equitable resolution of the dispute?
In her May 31 article, Ms Lee wrote of SIA’s fear that, were they to cut their non-unionised, overseas-based pilots first (as demanded by Alpa-S), they might find themselves boycotted by travellers unhappy with their unfair labour practices. I submit that, with the savage pay cut they are attempting to impose on their pilots, Singapore Airlines may find that the chickens have already come home to roost.
Yours, etc.
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Rockhound
Exceptionally well put sir! I for one am highly appreciative of your effort in setting pen to paper and bothering to take the Strait Lies to task.
As you say, it’s predictable that you should receive a rejection slip, but wholly understandable, as that fine medium of a free press has the much more pertinent subjects of HDB contracting, eulogies to the newly opened NE line and fallen trees not being under National Parks care, to air in its letters page, rather than the catastrophic depredation of the national carrier about to be undertaken.
Perhaps the pages of the International Herald Tribune may have a little more space available? Fortuitously, most of the Lies content originates in that medium anyway, so your letter may, eventually, filter to the august pages a day or so later!
Please keep up the good work.
Exceptionally well put sir! I for one am highly appreciative of your effort in setting pen to paper and bothering to take the Strait Lies to task.
As you say, it’s predictable that you should receive a rejection slip, but wholly understandable, as that fine medium of a free press has the much more pertinent subjects of HDB contracting, eulogies to the newly opened NE line and fallen trees not being under National Parks care, to air in its letters page, rather than the catastrophic depredation of the national carrier about to be undertaken.
Perhaps the pages of the International Herald Tribune may have a little more space available? Fortuitously, most of the Lies content originates in that medium anyway, so your letter may, eventually, filter to the august pages a day or so later!
Please keep up the good work.
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Rockhound
You are right.... BAD REPORTING SHOULD BE EXPOSED !!!
The Straits Times will not publish you previous letter. They are too chicken to publish any thing that expose their inadequacies.
Try condense your letter a little and write to other smaller papers ( which is gaining readership ) like Today at [email protected].
Keep knocking at the door.
You are right.... BAD REPORTING SHOULD BE EXPOSED !!!
The Straits Times will not publish you previous letter. They are too chicken to publish any thing that expose their inadequacies.
Try condense your letter a little and write to other smaller papers ( which is gaining readership ) like Today at [email protected].
Keep knocking at the door.
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Glad to hear it and that there is room for more than one side of a story in the Singapore media. The letter published in Today was of necessity a slightly reworded version of that sent to the ST.
Thanks for the appreciative comments and the suggestion from several quarters to try TODAY (thnx, B Swan, for providing an e-mail address).
Last but not least, thanks, John Barnes, for confirming my suspicions that you do NOT live in Belgium.
Rockhound
Thanks for the appreciative comments and the suggestion from several quarters to try TODAY (thnx, B Swan, for providing an e-mail address).
Last but not least, thanks, John Barnes, for confirming my suspicions that you do NOT live in Belgium.
Rockhound
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Rockhound.
Well done Rockhound, excellent post and ditto for the letter. Great to see some truth in the Singapore press.
The SIA reaction to the SARS situation and the attempt to use it to drive down salaries will be seen by many to be a massive over-reaction that reflects very badly on the wisdom and skill of the management team. Let us hope that the arbitration court is able to see this for what it is and undo some of the damage by making a reasonable decision. There will no doubt be a lot of face saving involved in that decision but the very least that we should hope for is that whatever the outcome, it should be temporary with a return to the agreed Collective Agreement procedures for the future to take effect this December.
The SIA board in the training centre is showing daily loads that are already back to two thirds + of normal loads. As the travel backlog kicks in through the summer and on towards Christmas and Chinese New Year SIA needs motivated staff to help them make the most of it.
Whatever the eventual outcome most SIA staff will not forget the way the senior management exposed their true colours. They will be very lucky if they ever get the same level of commitment from the staff again!
Well done Rockhound, excellent post and ditto for the letter. Great to see some truth in the Singapore press.
The SIA reaction to the SARS situation and the attempt to use it to drive down salaries will be seen by many to be a massive over-reaction that reflects very badly on the wisdom and skill of the management team. Let us hope that the arbitration court is able to see this for what it is and undo some of the damage by making a reasonable decision. There will no doubt be a lot of face saving involved in that decision but the very least that we should hope for is that whatever the outcome, it should be temporary with a return to the agreed Collective Agreement procedures for the future to take effect this December.
The SIA board in the training centre is showing daily loads that are already back to two thirds + of normal loads. As the travel backlog kicks in through the summer and on towards Christmas and Chinese New Year SIA needs motivated staff to help them make the most of it.
Whatever the eventual outcome most SIA staff will not forget the way the senior management exposed their true colours. They will be very lucky if they ever get the same level of commitment from the staff again!
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Straits Times today. SIA which is in the middle of a Wage re-structuring and retrenchment exercise will ask Shareholders to erase the limits on the number of share options it can issue to Senior Executives!!!
One has to ask why??? Is it because they will all get a big Pat on the Back for screwing all the staff permanently thus making a big profit for the Shareholders (Govt mainly) and thus will be rewarded with extra shares.
One has to ask why??? Is it because they will all get a big Pat on the Back for screwing all the staff permanently thus making a big profit for the Shareholders (Govt mainly) and thus will be rewarded with extra shares.
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Strait Lies, 27 June 2003
Move to do away with limits will help it to retain and attract quality executives, carrier explains in note to shareholders.
“Singapore Airlines (SIA), which is in the midst of a wage-restructuring and retrenchment exercise, will ask shareholders to erase limits on the number of share options it can issue to senior executives. The move, it said, will boost its efforts to retain management talent.”
“…(share option schemes) are an integral and important component of a compensation plan to attract and retain quality executives in an increasingly competitive environment.”
Well it’s interesting to note that the present devastation of employees lives and the proposed daylight robbery from the SIA salary budget is now called “an exercise”.
So OK, I admit my profound ignorance to date. Maybe someone can assist me here?
I had previously been unaware of the existence of any higher level SIA personnel who could in any way be remotely described as “quality executives”. I am aware, however, of a number of “by numbers” bureaucratic, time-serving nonentities who masquerade as independent and visionary thinkers but who, in reality, are merely ciphers of a rapacious majority shareholder, in turn masquerading as operating in a “free market”, subject to and helpless within the vagaries of its “forces” but having the resources of and unilateral recourse to, its own MOM and IAC, to smooth out the exigencies of these “forces”, when they become too inconvenient.
I am similarly unaware of any “quality executives” within the flight operations division. I am, however, aware of a couple of re-tread generals who arrived with much fanfare, hailed as the panacea to the woes of an organization that produced SQ006 plus a number of near squeaks and who continue to preside over a coercive and fear ridden organization which shows no real prospect of any meaningful reform.
I am also aware that the “buggins turn” principle of the long serving company worthy eventually taking the top slot prevails, but I’ve so far been unable to discern any markedly apparent or galvanizing leadership, inspiration, or for want of a better word, “pizzaz”, emanating from this form of evolution.
And finally I have no recollection of any of the present higher echelon being restless to move on from SIA and being in receipt of continuous and persistent courtship to progress to pastures greener (not to be confused with the retirement sinecures offered to obedient club members)
So now you have it. I’ve revealed my ignorance but I know that you will all be able to tell me that this new move to “erase limits on the number of share options” is quickly going to change everything and that instead of keeping a newly promoted, thirty odd year timeserving drone CEO, we will quickly be able to replace him with fresh dynamism attracted from the world market by a compensation plan designed to draw the very best talent, regardless of nationality, race and background to the airline and that he/she will be free, with the aid of the proposed newly attractive compensation plan, to recruit his/her own co-directors and managers from the same world-wide market, again regardless of nationality etc.
I know that this is going to happen – I read it in the newspaper! But if, by chance, this elysian vision does not prevail, what could possible be the reason for the change proposed?
Move to do away with limits will help it to retain and attract quality executives, carrier explains in note to shareholders.
“Singapore Airlines (SIA), which is in the midst of a wage-restructuring and retrenchment exercise, will ask shareholders to erase limits on the number of share options it can issue to senior executives. The move, it said, will boost its efforts to retain management talent.”
“…(share option schemes) are an integral and important component of a compensation plan to attract and retain quality executives in an increasingly competitive environment.”
Well it’s interesting to note that the present devastation of employees lives and the proposed daylight robbery from the SIA salary budget is now called “an exercise”.
So OK, I admit my profound ignorance to date. Maybe someone can assist me here?
I had previously been unaware of the existence of any higher level SIA personnel who could in any way be remotely described as “quality executives”. I am aware, however, of a number of “by numbers” bureaucratic, time-serving nonentities who masquerade as independent and visionary thinkers but who, in reality, are merely ciphers of a rapacious majority shareholder, in turn masquerading as operating in a “free market”, subject to and helpless within the vagaries of its “forces” but having the resources of and unilateral recourse to, its own MOM and IAC, to smooth out the exigencies of these “forces”, when they become too inconvenient.
I am similarly unaware of any “quality executives” within the flight operations division. I am, however, aware of a couple of re-tread generals who arrived with much fanfare, hailed as the panacea to the woes of an organization that produced SQ006 plus a number of near squeaks and who continue to preside over a coercive and fear ridden organization which shows no real prospect of any meaningful reform.
I am also aware that the “buggins turn” principle of the long serving company worthy eventually taking the top slot prevails, but I’ve so far been unable to discern any markedly apparent or galvanizing leadership, inspiration, or for want of a better word, “pizzaz”, emanating from this form of evolution.
And finally I have no recollection of any of the present higher echelon being restless to move on from SIA and being in receipt of continuous and persistent courtship to progress to pastures greener (not to be confused with the retirement sinecures offered to obedient club members)
So now you have it. I’ve revealed my ignorance but I know that you will all be able to tell me that this new move to “erase limits on the number of share options” is quickly going to change everything and that instead of keeping a newly promoted, thirty odd year timeserving drone CEO, we will quickly be able to replace him with fresh dynamism attracted from the world market by a compensation plan designed to draw the very best talent, regardless of nationality, race and background to the airline and that he/she will be free, with the aid of the proposed newly attractive compensation plan, to recruit his/her own co-directors and managers from the same world-wide market, again regardless of nationality etc.
I know that this is going to happen – I read it in the newspaper! But if, by chance, this elysian vision does not prevail, what could possible be the reason for the change proposed?
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RockHound Congraulations !!! You did it !!!
I thank you too for writing an excellent article in the first place.
The door is only just very slightly ajar. Let there be more of this 'eye-openers' be published from world-wide. May all Aviators everywhere be heard.
Well done again.
I thank you too for writing an excellent article in the first place.
The door is only just very slightly ajar. Let there be more of this 'eye-openers' be published from world-wide. May all Aviators everywhere be heard.
Well done again.
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Well, in view of the dire Straits that SIA now finds itself it should be no problem for them to identify the high flying types they feel are so necessary to maintain their momentum, rather than the pilots they are so desperate to shaft? I really would like to see most of this thread published in 'Today', (I appreciate that the Straits Lies will never publish it!), so, how do we achieve that? I can certainly cut and copy and send and I have nothing to fear from the machine, unless they choose to give me a hard time the next time I come on holiday to spend lots of money!
It is hard to believe they can be so hard nosed as to think that life will carry on regardless, it is also hard to believe that they can think that the end result can be achieved without the full support of all those involved unless, of course, they are assuming that intimidation is the way to go?
Let's see the posts of High Cirrus, Wotwazat, MillersCourt and B Swan in the Singaporean press, together with all those others that can expose what a bunch of nonsense SIA are trying to pull and the depths they are prepared to sink to in order to achieve their misbegotten aims.
It is hard to believe they can be so hard nosed as to think that life will carry on regardless, it is also hard to believe that they can think that the end result can be achieved without the full support of all those involved unless, of course, they are assuming that intimidation is the way to go?
Let's see the posts of High Cirrus, Wotwazat, MillersCourt and B Swan in the Singaporean press, together with all those others that can expose what a bunch of nonsense SIA are trying to pull and the depths they are prepared to sink to in order to achieve their misbegotten aims.
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No doubt the arbitration court will be recommending that the pilots in SIA should be given share options (at a dollar a share as per senior execs) to compensate for their loss of pay in the current "exercise".
These guys are incredible. Best thing to do is cease operations altogether, think of the money they'd save!
These guys are incredible. Best thing to do is cease operations altogether, think of the money they'd save!
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Sad to see SQ head down the tubes this way.
Was there in the late seventies, very early eighties (B707), and the management style then was totally different....where is JYM Pillay when they need him....?
Was there in the late seventies, very early eighties (B707), and the management style then was totally different....where is JYM Pillay when they need him....?
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Strait Lies, 28 June 2003 – Page 1, Home Section
Business picking up for travel agents
“They are gearing up for year-end holiday season; WHO’s decision to take China and Hong Kong off list of Sars-hit areas is helping recovery”
A return to pre-sars levels by next year?
“It’s picking up very nicely now. The momentum in June is strong across all markets…. By early next year, I think we’ll be back to levels we had pre-Sars. We’re seeing steady growth now and we’re stepping up our marketing.”
-Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Tharman Shanmugaratnam
Surely the Lies and the minister are off-message here? Should it not be “Catastrophy continues. Future of Singapore Airlines and the Republic in grave doubt”?
Am I the only one labouring under the delusion that the airline is manfully coping, day to day teetering on the verge of imminent bankruptcy, whilst others know, in actuality, that vast cash reserves are taking the immediate strain of contemporary events and that traffic is on the up and up, with the woes of the past couple of months now seen in context as mere blips on a wider screen of a past thirty years of exclusively profitable SIA business activity?
If I am not so deluded and others are wrong, I think the minister should be urgently informed that he is sketching entirely the wrong backdrop to Monday’s upcoming confrontation in the Industrial Arbitration Court (IAC) between Alpa-s and SIA, as reported on page 2 of the same Lies section, where the latter party will be seeking of the former party, on the main basis of recent losses sustained, an unprecedented and permanent 22.5% salary reduction for captains and a 15% reduction for first officers, coupled with the implementation of a 10 to 12 days no-pay leave scheme, to be rostered every two months, both of which proposals would effectively gross the salary reductions to approximately 48% for captains and 40% for first officers.
Obviously, as SIA is on the point of going down in the next few hours, the above proposals are entirely reasonable and, indeed, so much so that they should to be transmitted post-haste to the senior managements of Cathay Pacific, Eva, China et al, who’s hide-bound, introverted senior personnel have yet to see the light cast by these finer points of a pioneering, imaginative and innovative abrogation of the stuffy old tenets of traditional business principle and move to implement a similarly far-sighted programme.
Of which, I have just been rereading the “Boys’ Own Book of Free Market Capitalism” who’s content in former days, SIA and the government strictly adhered to, but, in today’s vibrant times, have now wisely consigned to the bin of history.
In Chapter five of my copy, it clearly states that shareholders shall wholly and exclusively take all the risks of an enterprise (such as boring old losses) and equally exclusively enjoy the full rewards of such enterprise (exciting profits).
Now, I have not recently noticed in either myself or my colleagues, a wholesale reduction in efficiency, productivity or availability to fly the roster and I’ve certainly heard nothing from SIA to suggest that this might be the case. Further, as far as I am aware, none of the airline’s pilots, engineers or ground staff has yet been implicated as being directly responsible for either the recent Gulf War 2 or the SARS epidemic, although it is prudent to presume that investigations into the matter continue. I think it reasonable, therefore, to assume that SIA’s colourful and vividly couched proposed salary reduction programme is not based on sanctioning either of these two speculative omissions or commissions but is based on an entirely different premise.
I can only conclude, hence, that for the first time in the history of free market capitalism, the shareholders will not now be alone in shouldering the tribulations of risk (loss) but, in an enthralling departure from stifling convention, will now be sharing it with a new breed of, albeit reluctant, risk takers - the employees. For how else can it be seen, when, for the first time in its history, the airline’s shareholders stand to make a loss but are now bravely offering to share it with their employees? Who said Singapore had lost a coherent vision of the future? Events of next week will demonstrate otherwise.
NB. Readers are asked not to confuse their annual so called “profit sharing” augmentations of salary with profits enjoyed by the shareholders. The former is a contracted, capped, incentive based part of the salary whilst the latter is the unfettered free market reward for calculated risk taking – a principle, incidentally, usually discouraged within the airline pilot profession.
Addendum
I have just had a conversation with a colleague, re: the above posting and he has suggested that my message may have been couched in rather too oblique a manner.
He has further suggested that I should clearly spell the message out and, on reread and reflection, I agree. So here goes:
The recently sustained losses by SIA are absolutely nothing to do with the employees and it is wrong and immoral for Alpa-s and other unions to be implicated as having some responsibility in the matter.
We have no business being in the IAC and we certainly should not be dragooned into any salary reductions whatsoever – as I have made clear, contemporary losses are matters entirely for the shareholders of a company that continues to sit on huge assets and reserves and which is rapidly becoming highly profitable again – not a company on the verge of bankruptcy that requires the kind of employee sacrifice, presented as being vital, to keep it going.
Is that clear enough?
Business picking up for travel agents
“They are gearing up for year-end holiday season; WHO’s decision to take China and Hong Kong off list of Sars-hit areas is helping recovery”
A return to pre-sars levels by next year?
“It’s picking up very nicely now. The momentum in June is strong across all markets…. By early next year, I think we’ll be back to levels we had pre-Sars. We’re seeing steady growth now and we’re stepping up our marketing.”
-Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Tharman Shanmugaratnam
Surely the Lies and the minister are off-message here? Should it not be “Catastrophy continues. Future of Singapore Airlines and the Republic in grave doubt”?
Am I the only one labouring under the delusion that the airline is manfully coping, day to day teetering on the verge of imminent bankruptcy, whilst others know, in actuality, that vast cash reserves are taking the immediate strain of contemporary events and that traffic is on the up and up, with the woes of the past couple of months now seen in context as mere blips on a wider screen of a past thirty years of exclusively profitable SIA business activity?
If I am not so deluded and others are wrong, I think the minister should be urgently informed that he is sketching entirely the wrong backdrop to Monday’s upcoming confrontation in the Industrial Arbitration Court (IAC) between Alpa-s and SIA, as reported on page 2 of the same Lies section, where the latter party will be seeking of the former party, on the main basis of recent losses sustained, an unprecedented and permanent 22.5% salary reduction for captains and a 15% reduction for first officers, coupled with the implementation of a 10 to 12 days no-pay leave scheme, to be rostered every two months, both of which proposals would effectively gross the salary reductions to approximately 48% for captains and 40% for first officers.
Obviously, as SIA is on the point of going down in the next few hours, the above proposals are entirely reasonable and, indeed, so much so that they should to be transmitted post-haste to the senior managements of Cathay Pacific, Eva, China et al, who’s hide-bound, introverted senior personnel have yet to see the light cast by these finer points of a pioneering, imaginative and innovative abrogation of the stuffy old tenets of traditional business principle and move to implement a similarly far-sighted programme.
Of which, I have just been rereading the “Boys’ Own Book of Free Market Capitalism” who’s content in former days, SIA and the government strictly adhered to, but, in today’s vibrant times, have now wisely consigned to the bin of history.
In Chapter five of my copy, it clearly states that shareholders shall wholly and exclusively take all the risks of an enterprise (such as boring old losses) and equally exclusively enjoy the full rewards of such enterprise (exciting profits).
Now, I have not recently noticed in either myself or my colleagues, a wholesale reduction in efficiency, productivity or availability to fly the roster and I’ve certainly heard nothing from SIA to suggest that this might be the case. Further, as far as I am aware, none of the airline’s pilots, engineers or ground staff has yet been implicated as being directly responsible for either the recent Gulf War 2 or the SARS epidemic, although it is prudent to presume that investigations into the matter continue. I think it reasonable, therefore, to assume that SIA’s colourful and vividly couched proposed salary reduction programme is not based on sanctioning either of these two speculative omissions or commissions but is based on an entirely different premise.
I can only conclude, hence, that for the first time in the history of free market capitalism, the shareholders will not now be alone in shouldering the tribulations of risk (loss) but, in an enthralling departure from stifling convention, will now be sharing it with a new breed of, albeit reluctant, risk takers - the employees. For how else can it be seen, when, for the first time in its history, the airline’s shareholders stand to make a loss but are now bravely offering to share it with their employees? Who said Singapore had lost a coherent vision of the future? Events of next week will demonstrate otherwise.
NB. Readers are asked not to confuse their annual so called “profit sharing” augmentations of salary with profits enjoyed by the shareholders. The former is a contracted, capped, incentive based part of the salary whilst the latter is the unfettered free market reward for calculated risk taking – a principle, incidentally, usually discouraged within the airline pilot profession.
Addendum
I have just had a conversation with a colleague, re: the above posting and he has suggested that my message may have been couched in rather too oblique a manner.
He has further suggested that I should clearly spell the message out and, on reread and reflection, I agree. So here goes:
The recently sustained losses by SIA are absolutely nothing to do with the employees and it is wrong and immoral for Alpa-s and other unions to be implicated as having some responsibility in the matter.
We have no business being in the IAC and we certainly should not be dragooned into any salary reductions whatsoever – as I have made clear, contemporary losses are matters entirely for the shareholders of a company that continues to sit on huge assets and reserves and which is rapidly becoming highly profitable again – not a company on the verge of bankruptcy that requires the kind of employee sacrifice, presented as being vital, to keep it going.
Is that clear enough?
Last edited by highcirrus; 28th Jun 2003 at 13:56.
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highcirrus
On the button highcirrus. You're post is excellent and an accurate summing up of the situation. Long overdue for something in this vein to appear in all of the local press and I hope the representatives of ALPA-S are equally eloquent at the hearing next week.
If there is an ounce of justice present in the arbitration court the judge will throw out SIA's proposals on the basis of the points raised by yourself and others and the fact that the pilots and cabin crew have already contributed to major savings by virtue of reduced flying hour related income.
The present pilots salary scheme was the eventual outcome of negotiations started nearly five years ago and is that far out of date. A reduction from that level is preposterous!
If there is a genuine concern to come into line with the government target of not more than 1.5 times basic salary for senior employees doing the same job as juniors then the place for that is within the next round of collective agreement talks.
The judge should bang a few heads together and send everyone back to the office to grow up and get on with making up the losses, and on into profit, on the basis of professional airline management as opposed to bleeding the staff.
Relations between staff and company have been severely damaged. Trust has been destroyed. This nonsense should be stopped before any further damage is done.
On the button highcirrus. You're post is excellent and an accurate summing up of the situation. Long overdue for something in this vein to appear in all of the local press and I hope the representatives of ALPA-S are equally eloquent at the hearing next week.
If there is an ounce of justice present in the arbitration court the judge will throw out SIA's proposals on the basis of the points raised by yourself and others and the fact that the pilots and cabin crew have already contributed to major savings by virtue of reduced flying hour related income.
The present pilots salary scheme was the eventual outcome of negotiations started nearly five years ago and is that far out of date. A reduction from that level is preposterous!
If there is a genuine concern to come into line with the government target of not more than 1.5 times basic salary for senior employees doing the same job as juniors then the place for that is within the next round of collective agreement talks.
The judge should bang a few heads together and send everyone back to the office to grow up and get on with making up the losses, and on into profit, on the basis of professional airline management as opposed to bleeding the staff.
Relations between staff and company have been severely damaged. Trust has been destroyed. This nonsense should be stopped before any further damage is done.
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wotwazat
Thank you for your kind words.
Your own words – “Relations between staff and company have been severely damaged. Trust has been destroyed”, remind me, when considering the attitude of both SIA Management and the Singapore Government, of Oscar Wilde’s own words – “A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) Act 3.
Thank you for your kind words.
Your own words – “Relations between staff and company have been severely damaged. Trust has been destroyed”, remind me, when considering the attitude of both SIA Management and the Singapore Government, of Oscar Wilde’s own words – “A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” – Lady Windermere’s Fan (1892) Act 3.
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Erudit stuff and obviously from ex-pats. Do you Singaporeans not have any opinion, or has it all been bred out of you?
Come on boys, nail your colours to the mast or everyone will think you're complete complaisant ars*holes.
Come on boys, nail your colours to the mast or everyone will think you're complete complaisant ars*holes.
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Anotherpost75
I am amaze with such a post. Especially from a person who would not even provide infomation on where you are from ?!!
What an ars*hole ( just to quote your word )
sigh....
I am amaze with such a post. Especially from a person who would not even provide infomation on where you are from ?!!
What an ars*hole ( just to quote your word )
sigh....