‘Angry and frustrated’: Biman pilots launch protests over pay cut

Pilots of Biman Bangladesh have decided not to work beyond the terms of contracts with the flag carrier as part of their protests against pay cuts.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 25 Oct 2021, 04:55 PM
Updated : 25 Oct 2021, 05:01 PM

Biman had announced the pay cuts for all employees one and a half years ago at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Others’ salaries have been restored but the decision does not cover the pilots, said Mahbubur Rahman, president of Bangladesh Airlines Pilots’ Association or BAPA.

“The pilots did not get additional pay despite risking their lives to fly the planes. The pilots are extremely frustrated and angry,” Mahbubur said on Monday.

The pilots said they are supposed to fly 75 hours and have eight days of holiday a month in line with a contract between Biman and BAPA.

Biman Managing Director and CEO Abu Saleh Mostafa Kamal could not be reached for comment. Its spokeswoman Tahera Khandaker said she did not know about the issue.

As many as 157 pilots are on the payroll of Biman. They have been hit with a reduction in pay ranging from 25 percent to 50 percent of their salary since May 2020.

Air connectivity was yet to be fully restored even after a year into the coronavirus outbreak, but Biman brought a lot of changes to the payment of pilots in July.

It stated that pilots working as cockpit crew between zero and five years will suffer no pay cuts for the month of July.

Crew members, including pilots, working for over five years to 10 years will receive a 5 percent cut, while those working for more than 10 years will get 25 percent less salary.

The pilots, however, said they stopped receiving overseas allowances, amounting to 20 percent of the salaries, so the pay cut, in reality, was 45 percent as opposed to 25 percent. It means those who will receive 5 percent pay cut will actually get 25 percent less.

The pilots also said officials working there for less than five years total 10 at the most.

The decisions by the Biman authorities prompted the pilots to threaten a strike, but they stopped the programme saying the authorities assured them of looking into their demand, according to Mahbubur.