"We are restless because there is discrimination in the company`s welfare standards. Foreign pilots in the positions of captain and first officer are paid higher salaries than their domestic peers," Said Damanik, an APG legal counsel, told newsmen here on Tuesday.
He said the salaries of local plots with Garuda were two times lower than those of foreign pilots in the airline`s employ.
This had happened because Garuda`s human resources development planning for pilots was not kept in harmony with the pace at which the company was expanding, he said.
"Garuda has been actively expanding its fleet without properly anticipating the corresponding increase in its need for pilots so it resorted to hiring foreign pilots," Damanik said.
He said the APG had tried to help solve the problem by twice asking for a meeting with the Garuda management but the meetings ended in deadlock.
"The Garuda management was only represented by its director of operations instead of its president director so that the meetings failed to result in a strategic decision," Damanik said.
Now the APG was demanding equality in the salaries of domesic and foreign pilots employed by Garuda.
"We give the management two weeks` time as of today (Tuesday, July 12) to settle this matter or else we will pursue other industrial options, including going on strike," Damanik said.
Meanwhile, two APG members Ramonaya and Ais Sampe Sule said local Garuda pilots had actually been restless since 2003.
"Our restlessness peaked since Garuda began vigorously hiring foreign pilots a few years ago," Ramonaya and Ais said.
Ais said a new local captain pilot was paid Rp43 million per month while a foreign captain pilot could earn as much as Rp100 million or US$10,200 per month.
He said Garuda at present had around 40 foreign pilots and 700 local pilots plus around 100 pilots on contact so the company was employing a total of 850-900 pilots.
(Uu.O001/HAJM)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
