Pilots Union hits back at Srilankan Chairman

21 December 2017 08:44 am Views - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}} 21 Bookmark

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The Pilots Guild of SriLankan Airlines in continuation of the publicized correspondence between the Chairman of the national carrier and the employees of the airlines asserted that their first proposal in the “restructuring process” is the stepping down of the Board.

The first suggestion for the restructuring process is that we at SriLankan airlines are of the firm belief that you and the management team have proved to be ineffective and unsuitable for the task at hand”, the Chairman of the Pilots guild said in a letter.

In the letter dated December 20th, Ruwan Vithanage the Chairman of the Guild further said that it was the Chairman of the Airline Ajith Dias who had repeatedly contradicted himself in all previous correspondence.

“Having written to all employees of the possibility of the closure of the company, you subsequently proceeded to contradict your own written statement by saying ‘we are not going to close this airline’, during an interview. Such statements and contradictions by you as the Chairman of the Board of Directors only serves to further justify the contents of the letter jointly sent by the Unions” the letter said.

Earlier, the Alliance of Unions insisted on the stepping down of the Sri Lankan Airline board citing incompetence and unwarranted benefits accrued by the board. The letter sent to the Chairman Ajith Dias was in response to the communiqué to the staff of the airline inferred the imminent closure of the Airline. Chairman Dias thereafter hit back at the unions saying that they were contradicting themselves.

Iterating its assertion of incompetence further, the Pilots said that Dias had caused damage to the Airline by his statements.

“Our stance of No-confidence in your board is also further substantiated by the significant defamation and commercial damages caused to our Airline, due to your statement. By your first communiqué, you have not only given notice to the employees of closure by also notice to our loyal passengers that Srilankan may no longer exist after March” It said adding that service providers, employee confidence have ebbed as a result of the statements.

The letter hitting back at the representation by Dias that there was assurance by the Unions to support the process of restructure initially, said that there was no restructuring process presented for such assurances presented at the meeting held on December 6.

“We wish to state that there was no restructuring plan presented or discussed with us ( during the 6th December meeting). Therefore, your claims of our confirmation and assurance to make it a success are unsubstantiated as thre was no requirement or opportunity for us to provide the same” the letter said. (Hafeel Farisz)