THE PIA management’s decision to annul working agreements with various employees’ associations may have been sudden but not unexpected. The present PIA management, which chose Labour Day to derecognise these associations with immediate effect, was showing signs of impatience with some of these groups, especially the one representing the airline’s pilots, for some time. Indeed, almost all these associations were without legal bargaining rights and operated as pressure groups to protect the interests of the company’s officers and other staffers including pilots, cabin crew, engineers, etc who were not represented as such by the Collective Bargaining Agent. So for the time being these groups no longer enjoy quasi-legal, collective representation unless a court grants them relief against their employer’s decision.

The airline made the decision a day after the government placed it under the Pakistan Essential Services (Maintenance) Act, 1952, for six months to allow it to rescue, evacuate and repatriate thousands of Pakistanis still stranded in different countries. The government and the PIA management evidently felt that the persistent demands of pilots and cabin crew for better safety measures in accordance with the requirements of social distancing for the security of both staff and passengers had been hampering efforts to bring back stranded Pakistanis. Once it was declared an essential service, it became easier for the airline to revoke agreements and derecognise these associations. The presence of these groups is often cited by policymakers and successive airline administrations as a major reason for the decline of the national flag carrier into a bankrupt organisation. That is true, but only partly. Blaming trade unions and other such groups in public-sector organisations for their ruin is to live in denial. If public-sector enterprises such as PIA are in a mess today it is because of years of incompetent management, faulty policies, lack of investment and so on. Overstaffing and uncooperative employees have played only a small role in their downturn. The suppression of trade unions and banishment of such associations will only add to the woes of these enterprises.

Published in Dawn, May 4th, 2020