Pilots and their union are protesting the decision. Since THY workers who were critical of previous decisions have been punished by the Turkish authorities, the pilots who talked about the decision to the daily Sözcü paper wanted their identities to be kept hidden. One pilot said, “What does the Interior Ministry decree for elderly to stay at home have anything to do with us? It is the nature of our job as we fly around the globe to go through regular and rigorous health checks. Even the faintest of symptoms that could endanger flying is investigated seriously. In the end, we fly together with the hundreds of passengers who trust their lives to us. If we had any illness why were we allowed to travel before?
Turkish Airlines, THY, forced more than a thousand pilots to unpaid leave after the economy collapsed in Turkey.
On top of the total economic collapse came the coronavirus pandemic that Turkey ignored even when it was causing havoc around the world.
Turkish Airlines, a project of the current AKP party rule, which had won many awards with nearly unlimited expenditures of the Turkish government had to shut down all routes in the world many of which was never intended to perform anyway. Claiming to be the airline that travelled to the most places on earth, THY had been flying to many destinations that did not make business sense at all. However, using the unlimited resources from the tax revenues of the Turkish population, the AKP government could use the THY as a means of political influence. As the AKP government planes flew to countries in Africa or elsewhere where there never was sufficient passengers to justify the route, the Turkish contractors would get trade and construction deals in those countries.
THY made Istanbul their hub for Europe, the Middle East and even to far east countries like India, Pakistan and China.
THY may have been the carrier of the coronavirus to Turkey and beyond when the pandemic hit the world and even under serious criticism initially refused to stop its flights to and from infected countries.
When the coronavirus infections and deaths became obvious and the AKP Turkish government was literally forced to accept the gravity of the pandemic, THY too was scaled back as flights were reduced. Still, flights initially carried passengers from Iran and Mecca, Saudi Arabia, high risk areas for the disease.
Finally, the operation had to be scaled back to an unsustainable level.
First, using a Ministry of Interior order for those above the age 65 to stay inside, the elder pilots were sent home. However, THY reduced the age limit to 60 instead of the government’s 65. Then, more than a thousand pilots were given unpaid leave.
This move comes at the heels of the President of THY board, İlker Aycı, who promised that every effort would be done to preserve the interests of the THY workers. It was revealed that while THY made such announcements, the administration was studying the plans to lay off pilots and staff.
Currently THY has suspended all international flights and is serving only 14 internal airports in a limited capacity.
When asked about the decision to force the pilots to unpaid leave THY refused to answer the questions.
Those pilots on unpaid leave will also lose their benefits as well. Those pilots who work will lose as well since they will be paid under the “Short Work Pay” structure. Some limited number of pilots who fly cargo planes may still get a higher pay than those under the short work pay tier.
Pilots and their union are protesting the decision. Since THY workers who were critical of previous decisions have been punished by the Turkish authorities, the pilots who talked about the decision to the daily Sözcü paper wanted their identities to be kept hidden. One pilot said, “What does the Interior Ministry decree for elderly to stay at home have anything to do with us? It is the nature of our job as we fly around the globe to go through regular and rigorous health checks. Even the faintest of symptoms that could endanger flying is investigated seriously. In the end, we fly together with the hundreds of passengers who trust their lives to us. If we had any illness why were we allowed to travel before?
“The interior ministry decrees those above 65 years of age to stay at home. However, THY has reduced this age to 60. They asked us to go on an unpaid leave voluntarily. Our co-workers in the cabin accepted this because the private health insurance premiums were going to be paid by the THY. Pilots, on the other hand, calculated that they would be losing much more from their pays and refused the unpaid leave offer. But now, they are enforcing a “Short Work Pay” structure which pulls even the working pilot wages down to the level of those of the cabin workers.
“The pilots have lost 90% of their wages now. No captain pilot could make a living under these conditions. They need to spend from their savings. Nobody has that much saving to suffice for a year. Everybody is under tremendous stress. These pilots will be flying with this psychology. The cargo pilots will be flying for 20 hours and thinking what will happen to them at the same time.”
Recently THY had also suspended the contracts of additional 600 pilots under training.
Sendika.org News (M.B.)
