Daily Lessons from Life 19 June 2009

Fri, Jun 19, 2009 AsiaOne - SIA pilots agree to no-pay leave and pay cut

SINGAPORE AIRLINES' (SIA) pilots have agreed to take one day of leave without pay each month, and a cut of 65 per cent of one day's pay (pro-rated from monthly basic salary), the airline announced Friday.


The agreement was signed yesterday between SIA and the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (ALPA-S) and takes effect from July 1.

"The airline has surplus pilot resources because of the cutback in flights following the sharp fall in demand for air travel," SIA said in a news release.


This new agreement will supercede an interim arrangement provided for pilots to take one day of compulsory no-pay leave every month, which started in May 2009."

This is a good move by the pilots of SIA. With this they have regained the high moral ground and demonstrated their willingness to work with the management to help the airlines. This will also mean they can demand the management to reciprocate the sacrifices made by them if things continued to deteriorate for SIA!

Lessons for me are:

1. to be flexible and make the right decision to win moral high ground is important when people are in dire straits and looking for supports from other quarters. Once you did that, you gained the moral high ground to demand for similar sacrifice from yet some others!!;

2. managing perception is important in a dynamic situation. People will perceive based on the behaviours exhibited. In this case, the pilots have acted upon the rallying cry to 'save' the airline from ruin due to the high cost of the pilots. Naturally others will start to look elsewhere for the next round of cut IF the business conditions do not improve over the next 6-12 months;

3. had the pilots insisted on no acceding to the SIA management original request, they may draw a very formidable negotiator in the form of MM Lee. They will have no chance against him so it is wise to pick the right battles to fight!

May one of our national icons regains its strengths and work harder to continue to fly Singapore flag high in the international arena. Judging by some recent public feedback, SIA has faltered much in customer services. With this reprieve provided by the pilots, SIA better perform well over the next few months before the board get asked to really account for why SIA has not improved with so many new level jobs created!