SriLankan wages pact with Aircraft Engineers’ union

SriLankan Airlines and the Association of Licensed Aircraft Engineers (ALAE) have extended their longstanding Collective Agreement for a further three-year period, the airline said in a statement.

The national carrier first entered into a collective agreement with the ALAE in 1999, which was extended for three more years in 2003. The latest extension will continue till to February 28.

The airline already has similar collective agreements with all of its other unions, including the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya, the Airline Pilots Guild of Sri Lanka, the Flight Attendants Union, the SriLankan Airlines Aircraft Technicians Association, the Manual & Mercantile Workers Union in Singapore, and the Foreign Airlines Employees Union Peninsular Malaysia.

The agreement was signed by Peter Hill (CEO), Captain Dick Hutton (Chief Technical Officer), Sunil Dissanayake (Head of Human Resources), and Ian Dunning (Senior Manager Aircraft Maintenance) on behalf of the airline, and for the ALAE by Saman Gunawardena (President), M.A. Gunasekera (Secretary), and C. Satchithananthan (Treasurer).

Saman Gunawardena, President ALAE, said: “As a union representing the best interests of employees, we are happy that the management gave due consideration to the high demand in the industry for Licensed Aircraft Engineers specially who are Certified on Airbus 320, 330 and 340 types and also recognized the valuable revenue we are generating for the company through the provision of Third Party Maintenance Services for other airlines”.