Airline Pilots’ Guild clarifies reasons for its ’’Fly the Roster’’ campaign

The Airline Pilots' Guild of Sri Lanka (ALPGSL) has relaunched its "Fly the Roster" campaign with effect from February 4. This is as a result of the SriLankan Airlines management failing to resolve the pilots' grievances despite assurances given earlier, it claimed. 

Issuing a statement, the ALPGSL stated that it first launched the campaign on December 21, last year but that it was called off after a couple of days after the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines through the management communicated to the ALPGSL that all grievances  will be resolved by January 31. 

However, the Chairman and the management failed to keep their word, and none of the issues were resolved satisfactorily by January 31. This prompted the Guild to relaunch the "Fly the Roster" campaign from February 4, it said in a statement. 

“One of the main issues that has still not been rectified is an anomaly in the remuneration of newly appointed Captains. These appointments were made on merit, and First Officers promoted to the rank of Captain take full responsibility for the aircraft and its passengers and are accountable for the safety of the flight while under his command. However, the company is refusing to pay the newly appointed Captains their salaries and paying them the salary of a First Officer while requiring them to perform the duties of a Captain,” the Guild stated.

Another issue is linked to remuneration, where contractually the company pays salaries in the rupee equivalent of dollars to pilots. “Since March 2020, the airline management has illegally and arbitrarily fixed a maximum exchange rate of $ 188.78 for the payment of salaries only, which is unlawful and also not the actual Central Bank published rate, nor is it the Sri Lankan Airlines Finance Department published rate,” it further said.

"Fly the Roster" essentially means that a crew member will work according to the published roster or schedule that he/she is provided with every month. During this campaign, pilots will refuse to fly on their off-days and also not accept changes in the published roster, the ALPGSL stated.

By T.K.G. Kapila