Pilots Guild commences ‘Fly the Roster’ campaign citing management failure to resolve grievances

The Airline Pilots’ Guild of Sri Lanka (ALPGSL) commenced a ‘Fly the Roster’ campaign on February 04, as a result of the grievances not being resolved as assured by the airline management in December 2021. 
“Some of the pertinent issues included contractual violations on the part of the management. Fly the Roster essentially means that a crew member will work according to the published roster or schedule that he/she is provided with every month.
The airline has been able to manage crew shortages by requesting pilots to fly during annual leave and on their designated days off or to accept changes in their published rosters,” the ALPGSL said in a statement. 
“The pilot body frequently accepted these changes and helped the company readily by going above and beyond the duty required by them. During the Fly the Roster campaign however, the pilots will refuse to fly on their off days and also not accept changes to the published roster,” it added. 
“Citing several issues that had a serious impact on the membership, the ALPGSL was forced to initiate the Fly the Roster campaign on December 18, 2021, after many official written requests went unanswered or fell on deaf ears. However, three days into the campaign, it was suspended by the ALPGSL when the management officially communicated that all grievances brought forward will be resolved by January 31, if the Fly the Roster campaign was suspended,” it said. 
“However, although the campaign was promptly suspended by the ALPGSL in good faith, it was regrettable to note that no suitable solutions were provided by the management on the date stipulated (January 31, 2022). This has led to the campaign being reinitiated until all grievances are resolved,” it noted. 
“It is regrettable that the show of good faith displayed in December by the ALPGSL by implicitly accepting the assurances of the management and calling off the campaign seems to have been taken advantage of with no positive resolutions as promised,” the statement concluded.