Bahamasair pilots who staged sickout will not be paid

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMASAIR’S Board of Directors is expected to meet today to determine what action will be taken against dozens of Bahamasair pilots who staged a “sick out” last week, according to board Chairman Valentine Grimes.

Mr Grimes told The Tribune the “pilots who did not work cannot expect to get paid”. He said the board will meet at 3pm to determine the “other repercussions” and a final decision will be made before the end of the week.

When asked how much money the two-day demonstration caused the national flag carrier to lose, Bahamasair’s Managing Director Henry Woods said the airline was still “calculating”. However, he said the final figure will be a “very significant amount”.

“The damage it caused the airline and the country is immeasurable,” Mr Woods said. “The actual expense in cents and dollars can be calculated, but what has been done to the reputation of the Bahamas and Bahamasair can not be repaid. Many locals have voiced their displeasure with the situation and vowed to never fly with us again.

“Tourists who sat in the airport for days as a result of this terrible experience vowed to never return to the Bahamas. That is real, irreparable damage. The board of directors will meet and decide what, if anything will happen. It now rests in their hands and after that decision is made, the recommendation will be passed on to the government.”

The two-day sick out began last Monday afternoon and continued until Christmas Eve morning, leaving the airline’s domestic and international flights grounded. The industrial action began after the pilots association’s executives reportedly walked out of a negotiation meeting with the government over its new contract.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the “corporate sabotage” from Bahamasair pilots should quicken the government’s effort to privatise the cash-strapped airline.

He also criticised the “irresponsible” and “selfish” acts of Bahamasair pilots, who left thousands of passengers stranded before Christmas. He added that stakeholders need to realise the airline is “no longer an essential service”.

Mr Davis, who has ministerial responsibility for Bahamasair, also suggested that the pilots may be punished appropriately for their “unlawful” industrial action, adding that the costs incurred from the sick out may prompt him to withdraw the government’s proposal for the pilots’ new contract.

While Mr Davis did not say what penalties, if any, the pilots would face, a well-placed source told The Tribune their pay would be docked for the missed work days. The government is also considering asking the pilots to pay for the losses the airline incurred due to the industrial action.

When contacted for comment, Captain Joseph Moxey, the president of the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association (BALPA), said he “will not respond in the media to executives”. However, last Tuesday he told The Tribune his members were “not being unreasonable” in their demands. He apologised to the public for the situation, but said the pilots were “stressed out and mentally drained” and that it was not safe for them to fly a plane in that state.

Comments

B_I_D___ says...

Blah blah blah...whenever these little sick outs take place the first thing the higher ups say is the workers won't get paid...but what ends up happening, whenever they settle their disagreements the union has talked management into paying them anyways. Place your bets.

Posted 30 December 2014, 12:18 p.m. Suggest removal

UserOne says...

From the reactions of Mr. Davis and Mr. Grimes you would think this was the first airline and the first country to have a strike. Check yourselves, I have seen many airlines deal with strikes and didn't react like the sky was falling. As far as effects on tourism, if they were really concerned about that they would be dealing with crime and not carrying on about a one day strike. Sounds to me like bruised egos here.

Posted 30 December 2014, 1:35 p.m. Suggest removal

bimjim says...

Sounds like the "surprise" LIAT management expressed at LIALPA after negotiating a one-year contract for ten years and the pilots eventually walked out there, too.
.
It never ceases to amaze me that rather than give an employee group a reasonable raise, today's management - almost any management anywhere - would rather blow a THOUSAND times that much (or more) on industrial action (not to mention the loss of customer good will, as has happened at LIAT).
.
LIAT not only effectively cut their pilots pay by delaying any resolution of raises by ten years (TWICE, the first time in +8% inflation territory), but in the "sick-out" that followed the airline lost literally hundreds of millions of US dollars in lost revenue, cancelled flights and elevated customer dissatisfaction.
.
BahamasAir management is now doing the same thing LIAT management did, too - "amazement" that such a thing should happen, "confusion" and "no idea why", and easing the blame onto the pilots rather than have anyone recognise their own INCOMPETENCE at managing their employees and negotiating agreements and employee contracts.
.
Of course, now that the crapola has hit the fanola, we will see more pressure from the government to privatise or close BahamasAir... and if that happens the current inept and incompetent management will find themselves out on the street. And - given their (lack of) performance negotiating with the pilots - I am sure it could not happen to a nicer bunch of "people".
.
Come on. Mr. Davis, if Bahamasair is no longer an essential service then put your money where your BIG MOUTH is and shut the airline down. If you are so brave to lambaste the pilots in the Press, let's see you follow through on your threats. Or is that all just hot air to impress your constituents while you actually do nothing??
.
Blah blah blah is 100% right. Time to PUT UP or SHUT UP.

Posted 30 December 2014, 4:37 p.m. Suggest removal

FortheBahamianppl242 says...

The fact that Brave Davis dare degrade his fellow Bahamians for standing up for what they deserve is shameful. Pilots around the world have done what they thought sufficient to obtain what they deserve when their reasonable wants were falling on deaf ears. If this government truly wanted this flag carrier to be a success, necessary steps would have been taken and proper planning and provision would have been in effect years ago. The oppression this country has its people under is baffling; Bahamians are unable obtain opportunities in this country due to deals that are made that benefit the politicians, more so than the people. Actions taken to ensure our pilots received what's deserved to them unfortunately happened during Christmas time. Our government did not look out for their own, they wanted to back log even more owed to our pilots. The DPM chastising his fellow people for demanding what he failed to provide is what's shameful. As the minister in charge for the national flag carrier, why does he have no plan to see the country's airline prosper? Why is it that he has alleged shares in another local airline? How is he supposed to do what's beneficial for the Bahamasair pilots when it's alleged that his money comes from its competition? How is it that pineapple air allegedly receives up to $300k per month from flights from Bahamasair? How is that it that he was so willing to subsidize work to an international charter than settle and pay his own people? How are we ok to have people in power that don't fight for our people? How are we ok to have people in power that are not questioned about their motives more frequently and are not questioned enough about how they plan on doing what they say they will do? Why is that we have to take our government to battle as a Bahamian people just to get what we deserve? We have a DPM that does a lot of talking with nothing to show for; a man that throws around a few big words to impress the people but never delivers.

Posted 30 December 2014, 5:53 p.m. Suggest removal

You want to pull the contracts of our pilots that have to put up with a minister that is not setting them up for success but for failure, for a minister that isn't giving them a future, but holding them hostage due to his uninspired vision for an airline that could be a top airline if there was proper planning implemented, for a minister who has failed to provide it's pilots with effective aircrafts, but wastes money on planes that constantly break down due to our government wanting to be cheap, and as a nation, we then wonder why we have flight delays. If Brave was doing his job from the beginning, making sure the company he's in charge of had employees that were satisfied from the top down to the bottom, that bothered to communicate with the people that the flag carrier employs to gather insight about what should change and what should remain the same, that had an idea of what could improve day to day operations, that truly cares and took his duties seriously to see Bahamasair be a success story and wasn't looking out for himself, then and only then, Bahamasair would not be in this position, it would be a grave source of income for this country. This goes for the ministers before Mr. Davis. Then again, what government is truly for the people and not themselves?

gkeato says...

the wisest solution is to sell what is left of that once respected, small minion of an airline, then there will be no more 1950's union type sick-outs which are actually strikes, by very selfish and in the end ,stupid pilots whom I would not trust to fly me anywhere and have caused measurable damage to the tourism sector (huge) of this country.

Bye bye Bahamas air and the country will save a fortune and no more embarrassment

Posted 31 December 2014, 9:59 a.m. Suggest removal

Why wouldn't you trust the pilots to fly you? BahamasAir has never had a crash in their history of flying. How many airlines have that record?
By the way, it is the ongoing crime that is causing immeasurable damage to tourism not a one day strike.

Posted 31 December 2014, 10:54 a.m. Suggest removal