October 29, 2007	Monday	Shawwal 16, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: Disruption in the schedule of Pakistan International Airlines’ flights is feared as airline engineers on Sunday threatened to go slow from Monday if their demands for improved working conditions were not met.

The crisis could be much severe than is being anticipated because the engineers are enjoying the support of their colleagues in other sections, especially the pilots.

Despite being cognizant of the crippling effect the engineers protest can have on flight operations, the airline management looks adamant in not acceding to their demands.

Indirectly hinting at refusal to meet the demands, PIA Chairman Zaffar Khan told Dawn that the management was talking to engineers trying to make them realize the difficulties of the airline. However, he said, he is hoping for a positive outcome.

The airline, running in losses for several years now, incurred a loss of Rs 7.75 billion for the first half of the current year primarily because of increased financing cost of newly-inducted airplanes. The national carrier is at the same time confronted with shortage of qualified engineers.

The engineers are demanding restoration of parity in pays with those of pilots (100:55), revival of privileges like flight allowance, denied rest allowance and overtime, and abolition of the bell-curve method for employee evaluation.

Society of Aircraft Engineers of Pakistan (SAEP) President Shaukat Jamshed insisted that the engineers were neither going on strike nor resorting to tactics like going by the book or going slow, instead they were withdrawing all their cooperation with the management and would be refusing to work for extended periods, like working on off days and being denied rest, something which they had been doing so far in the best interest of the beleaguered national carrier.

SAEP accused the management of violating the memorandum of understanding signed with them in March earlier this year about the fulfilment of their demands on the false pretext of difficult financial conditions.

Mr Jamshed said the management’s excuse of poor financial conditions is doubtful and ill-founded.

The management, he said, had the resources to hire foreign consultancy at around Rs 5,000 an hour which failed to deliver any goods. Moreover, he said, it also had the resources to persist with posting persons from marketing on off-line stations where PIA does not even operate giving them handsome salaries and perks.

Speaking about the step-motherly treatment towards the engineers, he alleged PIA had the resources for investing in non-productive activities like the tail branding of aircraft and lavish renovations in the head office, but lacked the same for providing basic facilities like clean drinking water, emergency electricity supply and aircraft-support equipment within the engineering department.

He reiterated SAEP’s commitment on making all possible efforts to make the current Hajj operation a success.