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Pilot dispute over recruitment continues
View(s):A two-month dispute between the management and the Airline Pilots’ Guild of Sri Lanka has affected cadet pilot recruitment to SriLankan Airlines, sources said.
“The training of old batches of cadets should end in the next two months,” said a guild source who wished to remain anonymous. “There are no more trainees after that.”
The training of the last batch was suspended and there was no new intake. Neither has SriLankan advertised for a fresh intake.
SriLankan management neither denied nor admitted that there was a problem. “The outstanding issues are being addressed in consultation with all parties concerned,” SriLankan Media Manager Deepal Perera said. “We expect to resolve them soon.”
“This is an ongoing process and based on the availability of our training slots and requirement, we will resume the process,” Mr. Perera said, in response to a question on when SriLankan would start recruiting cadet pilots again. Meanwhile, flying on the published roster by pilots continues to cause delays. The dispute erupted on March 1 when the Pilots’ Guild launched trade union action over a management decision to cut a qualifying test score by five marks.
The pass mark for the final aptitude test — conducted in a flight simulator — was set at 70. However, the management “arbitrarily” directed SriLankan Airlines Chief Operations Officer Druvi Perera to reduce this by five points to 65. Two candidates who failed the test were then absorbed. However, the Pilots Guild protested and started “flying the roster”. This trade union action, which is still continuing, means that they reject requests from the Flight Operations Department to work on their holidays to meet a dire pilot shortage.
Pilots Guild President Ruwan Vithanage said they had no feedback from the management regarding the ongoing dispute. The guild wrote to Aviation Ministry Secretary Ravindra Ruberu last week, requesting a meeting to discuss the lack of progress. Dr. Ruberu said he was not meeting the pilots. “The matter is still being sorted out,” he asserted. “Something will happen by next week.”
SriLankan management did not set such a deadline. “Currently we are working closely with all the stakeholders to address the issues raised by the Pilots’ Guild,” Mr. Perera said. “We expect a resolution soon.”
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