The cease-fire between PIA management and Pakistan Air Line Pilots' Association (Palpa), reached only about two weeks ago, instead of finding a permanent solution to the dispute between the two sides, appears to be heading towards further escalation of the problems.
There is distrust and deadlock. Pilots' community at Palpa head office in Clifton is unhappy that the Flight Operations Department, which is dominantly manned by Palpa members, instead of furthering the cause of their community, is covertly siding with the management.
"Their flirtation with the management would not last for ever. After all, they have to come back to the fold. With what face they would rejoin their colleague flyers?" commented an angry member of Palpa. They may not be able to sustain the wrath of their professional body, he added.
Palpa statement, issued here on May 7, terming the Admin Order No 17/2009 issued on May 7 with back date of April 27, as "mala fide and against the memorandum signed by PIA and Palpa at the Ministry of Defence on April 24, is indicative of the simmering feelings of lack of confidence of the pilots' community.
Palpa spokesman further said: "The PIA management has backtracked on the agreement signed on April 24, which contained a clause limiting the night flights to two sectors between 10 pm and 6 am. He said that the management has mentioned in the admin order that no departures of such flights will be planned during the time, which means that such flights could be planned to take off slightly before 10 pm.
He said that this has been made clear to the Ministry of Defence, Aviation Wing, that such practice will jeopardise the passenger safety and would also attract criticism from ICAO and Ifalpa, the international pilots' association, as it poses serious threat.
He said that the clause mentioned only two sectors to be limited at night--between 2200 hours and 0600 hours", and the management cleverly added the word 'departure' in the admin order, which would allow them to put a single crew on flights departing before 10 pm with more than two sectors.
This would not only put the crew to stretch their working hours but would also burden them to fly on fatigue at times when it is extremely dangerous for them to operate an expensive machine like an aircraft. International practice in the aviation industry for night duties of pilots is less than 10 hours, while PIA pilots are already working on 12 hours night duty.
The flying community believes that flights of more than 2 sectors, even during day time, cause fatigue and stress, while flying more than two sectors during night by a pilot is a safety hazard for the passengers, and it is also prohibited in the international aviation standards.
The disputed admin order also restricts pilots to submit medical certificate while taking sick leave, which is also against the international practice. He added that flying crew, as per international practice, reports sick without any medical certificate to avoid flying on less rest or feeling sick.
He said that the management knows that flying an aircraft is not like driving a car. One has to follow the international rules and practices as it involves hundreds of lives of passengers who are directly affected by one single error made by fatigued crew.
The spokesman said that the management is bent upon maligning the flying community by projecting as if the pilots are demanding salaries raise, etc, whereas the working agreement under discussion is about flight safety and working conditions of flying crew.
He said that pilots are well aware of financial condition of the airline while they cannot be held responsible for the same and are also cognisant of the fact that the current economic conditions have badly affected the airline's financial health but the international practices and rules regarding flying must be followed.
He said that the passengers are prime focus of any airline, and their safety cannot be put at risk at any cost, considering which, the pilots would have no option but to withdraw the concessions given to the management, and fly according to the world aviation standards.
Comments
Comments are closed.