Alpha-S also wants to benchmark pilot salaries like minister

Joshua1975 SG

nothing will change. now all this GLC coy employ ppl on contract terms.

so to say most of this "flyer" can do nothing.

Atobe SG

The 'flock of money-minded mercenaries quitting the private sector and joining govt-linked firms' are the talented ones that this government has been seeking, but could not - prior to the atrocious wage levels being further raised.

These are the worms hidden in the rotten woodwork and will only answer the call to another rotting wooden structure.

While ALPA-S claim more responsiblity due to higher passenger loads with the larger Airbus A380 aircrafts, SIA's management had been ingenious to claim that pilots remunerations will far exceed that of its Vice-Presidents.

Those SIA Vice-Presidents should benchmark their salary to the Minister's - as they all lead by sitting on their butt and think of creative reasons to control the wages of those who will actually be doing all the work.

Fingolfin_Noldor SG

Contrary to popular opinion, SIA's pay for all its employees has been largely under the industry average say if we compare SIA vs Qantas or BA.

However, pilot pay is subjected to international competition and thus naturally it will be closer to the industry average. There's also the issue that some of the pilots aren't local. You can be certain they will pack up and go if the pay else where is better

soul_rage SG

SINGAPORE, April 25 (Reuters) - Singapore Airlines is underperforming its major rivals in terms of yields, margins and return on equity, a report in the Business Times said on Wednesday.
The paper quoted the airline's vice-president for industrial relations, Loh Oun Hean, who painted a bleak picture of the state-controlled airline's prospects at the Industrial Arbitration Court (IAC).

Singapore Air and its pilots have been in a protracted wage dispute.

The world's largest airline by market value said its pilot salary structures are multiple, complex, tied to aircraft type and have resulted in rigidity of deployment of resources.

A survey of 29 airlines including Cathay Pacific , British Airways , Qantas , and others showed the pay of Singapore Air pilots equalled that of pilots at 23 of these airlines.

The report said Singapore Air had the lowest overall unit cost at 45.2 Singapore cents per capacity tonne km (CTK) versus 66.8 Singapore cents among its peers over the past five years.

The airline's yield-to-cost ratio was 1.7 cents, versus 3.8 cents for the benchmarked group. Its operating margin was 5.6 per cent, versus the benchmark average of 7.7 per cent. And net ROE was 8.9 per cent versus 12.7 per cent for the group.

The airline had the lowest return on equity among its peers and its wage costs account for 50 to 60 per cent of controllable costs, the report said.

Singapore Air chalked up a 50 percent rise in net earnings to S$1.458 billion ($963.6 million) for the nine months to Dec. 31, 2006. ($1=1.513 Singapore dollar)

soul_rage SG

here we go again. Same old strategy. Give lots of shit info to justify themselves, before they cut people's pay.

charlize SG

Maybe they will use the sense of proportion argument like MM.

Bigger airplanes, more salary lor. Laughing

robertteh SG

Sad day for Singapore when leader can revoke PR or citizenship with impunity and with such double standards in determining how much salary increments to give themselves or the SIA pilots.

(human) SG

Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security. -Benjamin franklin

The citizens also have the power to revoke the leader. Laughing

hisoka SG

well come to the sad days of singapore Laughing

Fingolfin_Noldor SG

Er... that is the Pilot's argument for larger salary...

MS SG

Very contradicting govenment agenda regarding minister pay hike.

The pay is not the factor that few wants to serve. It is the problem over inspiring the new generation to burden themselves with the yoke of holding the reins.

Despite better technologies, bigger mass, A380 is different in design. Newer and more sophisticated doesn't mean better. It just mean that it can do more things. So more skills & knowledge are required to handle the machinery. Therefore paying them higher on those handling these equipment is reasonable.

charlize SG

Yes, yes.

The "they" are the pilots. Laughing

Fingolfin_Noldor SG

The Airbus A380 uses similar controls to the rest of the Airbus fleet which SIA maintain. In fact, the older B744 which SIA has is far harder to fly than the newer A380.

charlize SG

But then again, the people at the top will tell you with a straight face not to link government salaries with pilots' salaries.

Just like not linking the government salary hike to financial assistance given to the poor. Laughing

countdracula SG

in the context of our ‘beloved’ mm “pay the damn flying [email protected]!! they deserve it because they fly the best airline, other airline pilots are mediocre!!”

soul_rage SG

hehe, it also occurs to me that should the pilots lose this battle, and their pay get cut, few things will happen
(1) Good pilots will leave and join other airlines
(2) Newbies are promoted faster than normal to captain a plane

To me, its reasonable to deduce that the safety of SIA is at risk, and I better avoid SIA when I fly in the near future Very Happy

menoob SG

Originally posted by soul_rage:
SINGAPORE: Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S) is seeking to justify a pay rise for pilots of superjumbo A380 by saying that the larger aircraft is more difficult to manoeuvre.

Singapore Airlines, however, argued that due to technological advances, flying the A380 is not very different from flying other planes.

This salary dispute has been brought to the Industrial Arbitration Court and day two of the hearing was conducted on Tuesday.

In a retort to SIA's point, Alpa-S said "the advancement of technology in any field has never been used as a basis to quantify a person's salary".

The union added it is akin to saying that because a cardiologist can now depend on a CT scan, his consultation fees should be reduced.

SIA wants to scrap the multiple salary range system altogether.

Currently, under this system, pilots of different fleet types get paid differently a repatriation model used by a few other international airlines.

SIA said "multiple salary ranges create differentiation which may inhibit teamwork".

Furthermore, SIA said it aims to continually upgrade its fleet, and if it does not settle the issue of salary range, there may be more problems to settle in the future.

[b]SIA said as the average resignation rate for pilots in the last six years was a low 1 percent, the company could be deemed to be paying competitive salaries.

Furthermore, SIA produced a chart showing that in a comparison with ten international airlines, SIA ranks among the top three paymasters when it comes to the annual net income of its pilots.
Since 2001, pilots' pay has also gone up by at least 15 percent.

But the company, as a whole, is not seeing such healthy growth.

SIA may be profitable, but in the last five years, its return on equity is an average of 8.9 percent.

That is well below a 12.7 percent average of seven other international airlines which SIA uses as a benchmark.

SIA's average unit yield in the last five years was also 46.9 cents, while the average unit yield of the seven international airlines was 70.6 cents.

And with increasing competition, the company is unwilling to entertain the pilot's demands, for fear of further eroding its cost competitiveness.

Pilots' pay forms 34 percent of the company's total wage costs, and SIA assured its pilots that their current salary would not be reduced, and they can expect a bonus this year of at least 3.1 months.

The pilots are expected to counter these points when the hearing continues on Wednesday.

- CNA/so
[/b]

greedy pilots taking cue from MIW
ask them go fly kite instead
find another airline willing to pay them a higher salary

Atobe SG

Is it not typical to pay the top the highest possible obscene pay, so that he can think of ways to cut all possible costs of all stratas below his level so as to make it profitable ?

What is the cost of the top level management as a percentage to the total wage bill, and comparing it to the man hours of productive activity that will generate profit measurable in units of currency ?

It will be obvious that those at the bottom levels put together will produce a higher productive output that generate most of the profit in the organisation compared to any that can be measured from those at the top levels.

Sadly, management always justify their high wages and will always attempt to cut the costs of those at the bottom, whose combined total will weigh heavier.

Unfortunately, short sighted management will fail to recognise that it is the combined effort of those at the bottom that generate the profit output from the total economic enterprise.

rojak12 SG

I hope the pilots win this case.

Then we will see the next round for bus drivers:

"Double-decker bus drivers demand more pay", because it is more difficult to manoeuvre and more life is at stakes.

Very Happy

soul_rage SG

Seriously, I support the pilots

The argument that better technology equals "cut your pay" is really the 1st time I have heard of such rubbish.

Like they said, we should cut all surgeons' pay since technology advancement has help them in their job.

Similarly, cut the ministers' pay since IT now allows them to gather statistics/make decisions easier?

I am interested to see who's PR status is revoked this time by our petty and short-sighted govt.

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