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SriLankan to formulate ‘totally new process’ to recruit trainee pilots: Management
No further recruitment until new process comes into effect, while last batch of trainee pilots must reapply
SriLankan Airlines will formulate a “totally new process” for recruitment of trainee pilots, its management said last week.
“Any cadet pilot recruitment would be in accordance with this new process,” said SriLankan Chief Marketing Officer G.T. Jeyaseelan. “We just commenced the review process and will introduce it as soon as possible. No recruitment would be done until the new process comes into effect.”
The Civil Aviation Ministry last week instructed SriLankan Airlines to review the process by which it recruits trainee pilots. Ministry Secretary Ravindra Ruberu also held that the last batch of trainee pilots must reapply and gain entrance under the new intake process. In a letter to SriLankan Airlines dated May 14, 2013, he said the flying aptitude test conducted in a flight simulator was subjective and unfair by candidates who may not have used such a device before.
The Ministry’s directive is the latest development in a protracted dispute between the Airline Pilots’ Guild of Sri Lanka and the management of SriLankan Airlines. Differences emerged in March when the Pilots’ Guild objected to a management decision to “arbitrarily” lower the pass mark for the flying aptitude test from 70 to 65. Eight candidates passed the selection process, which included two written papers and the simulator test. However, two more were accommodated after the reduction in the qualifying mark. All of them will now have to reapply, Dr. Ruberu told the Sunday Times.
The Sunday Times saw a copy of the letter Dr. Ruberu sent to SriLankan Chief Executive Officer Kapila Chandrasena. The Secretary said it was Government policy to provide maximum opportunity to qualified Sri Lankan citizens to undergo the cadet pilot training programme.
He said only a few candidates are at present allowed to enter the programme, as they must be successful in the intake process which includes an aptitude test in a flight simulator. The Secretary notes that there is a pass mark for the test, “although the test itself is not an objective test, and is totally dependent on the examiner’s assessment of how a candidate is performing a given task”.
“This method of subjective assessment is not fair by the candidates who may not have been exposed to a simulator testing environment in the past,” he asserts. “As for the state (sic) of the present intake, you are directed to call for fresh applications and evaluate the suitability of the applicants, including those who were short-listed on the present intake process, in accordance with the intake process that is to be formulated and approved by the Hon. Minister,” Mr. Ruberu states. The Pilots’ Guild welcomes the decision to afford more opportunities to Sri Lankans, “so long as the minimum standards for recruitment are maintained”, said its president Captain Ruwan Vithanage.
The Guild will meet next week to discuss the latest events. Authoritative sources said they were likely to call off the ongoing “fly-the-roster” trade union action, which was launched as a result of the dispute.
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