Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Chairman and Secretary Defence Lt. Gen. (R) Asif Yasin Malik has invited all associations and CBA of the National Flag Carrier to discuss and finalize their Working Agreements/Charter of Demands.
The invited Union/Associations include CBA for group 1 to 4, Senior Staff Association for officers above group 5, Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan (SAEP), Aircraft Technologists Association of Pakistan (ATAP), Flight Engineers National Association (FENA), and Pakistan Airline Pilots’ Association (PALPA).
The CBA had started negotiating with the management of PIA by presenting its Charter of Demand, and a positive outcome was expected soon, said a source.
Meanwhile, PALPA, FENA, ATAP, SAEP, PIASSA were also expected to present their demands for salary raise and other perks and privileges to the management. They also demanded that pension of the retired employees should be increased every year in line with the salary increases of the regular employee according to the admin order number 21/2003. Also, there should be an increase in the pension from current 32% to 50% as per government rules.
The associations welcomed the chairman’s initiative to call representatives of the union and all associations as it will help formulate a strategy on the long term basis for the revival of the airline and will win the hearts and minds of the employees.
Sources said that the management of PIA was well aware that the employees were facing difficulties due to rise in inflation and they needed some help to cope with this issue. “Since the employees are backbone of the airline, their demands and salary review is their basic right,” said the source.
The management of PIA had given a pay raise to the employees some 10 years back, while the federal government had raised the salaries of its employees/defence personnels three times during the last five years.
According to sources the PIA management had asked the government to allow raising salaries of PIA employees as the management wants to retain its highly technical and professional workforce at any cost because this was the only way to ensure the airline’s progress. Otherwise many new airlines in the region especially from Middle East were hunting for such workforce, offering huge salaries to aviation people as nothing replaces experience in this high tech aviation industry.
