Pilots may step up action if salaries are docked

As of Thursday, January 8, 2015

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Airline Pilots Association President Captain Joseph Moxey yesterday threatened to “take things to the next level” if his members’ salaries are cut for “calling in sick”.

Mr Moxey told The Tribune that his members were “legitimately sick” and were not involved in any industrial action in the days before Christmas.

He said the pilots are entitled to six sick days, without needing a doctor’s slip, and neither the management at Bahamasair nor the government can prove the pilots were not ill.

His comments came a day after Labour Minister Shane Gibson said the government is looking at how it can legally recover more than $1m from the Bahamasair pilots who participated in an “illegal sick out” last month.

Just before Christmas, dozens of Bahamasair pilots failed to report for work, leaving thousands of travellers, foreign and domestic, stranded in New Providence and Florida. Mr Gibson also said those pilots will not be paid for the two days they “failed to show up to work”.

“They are not doctors, they cannot tell us we were not sick,” Mr Moxey said. “We started talking to the government and they talked about cutting the pilots’ pay and trying to recover the million dollars they say they lost when the pilots were sick. I do not know what they are going to do, or how they are going to get it but we did not do anything wrong, so we are not and should not have to pay. It was not industrial action, the pilots were sick. They could not fly planes if they are sick. We do not know where Bahamasair got that loss amount from because they did not show us anything. They cannot determine we were not sick.

“They control how we are paid, so they can do what they have to do and then we will do what we have to do and take it to the next level if need be. Pilots have a right to be sick, under the new contract we are entitled (to) six sick days without a certificate.”

Despite their differences, Mr Moxey said the meetings with the government and his association have been amicable.

“They are going good. We have been more than reasonable. We are not asking for the world. We are back at the table and trying to resolve these issues and hopefully that can be done very soon.”

In late December, Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said he has given directives on what he “expects to occur” regarding the punitive fates of the Bahamasair pilots. At the time he called the pilots’ actions “corporate sabotage” that should quicken the government’s effort to privatise the cash-strapped airline.

At the New Year’s Day Junkanoo Parade, Mr Davis told The Tribune he stands by his previous statement on the matter and that he is not prepared to “allow the Bahamian people to contribute much further to maintaining an airline whose employees are not prepared to work with the government”.

proudloudandfnm 9 years, 3 months ago

Man no one NEEDS Bahamasair. If these asshole pilots wanna go on strike then simply boycott Bahamasair... Show them morons that they have zero power....

TruthHurts 9 years, 3 months ago

@proudloudandfnm

I can tell you one thing.. if ever these pilots strike, I will indefinitely boycott Bahamasair! As you said, WE don't need this airline and them having a job/career to go to every year has been a blessing. This may very well be the push the government needs to officially call it a WRAP!

DonAnthony 9 years, 3 months ago

Mr. Money should acquaint himself with the truth and stop lying to an already angry Bahamian tax payer - shame on him and his greedy cohorts. I flew on bahamasair last week and on disembarking saw the the captain of the flight was an old school friend. I shook his hand and asked if he was feeling well, he blushed red and holding his throat laughed nervously and said he was feeling much better. What a charade, well now the time for laughing is over, and it is time to pay for the lies. The government needs to take a stern position with this Union. Any further sick outs, and the entire airline should be shutdown, every pilot fired, and the airline only reopened with honest pilots at much lower wages.

ObserverOfChaos 9 years, 3 months ago

Exactly! How in any stretch of imagination can he say with all honesty that there was "legitimately sick" pilots!?!? This idiot apparently believes his own lies and that all bahamians are stupid.....

Alex_Charles 9 years, 3 months ago

I don't fly on the POS airline because of it's reputation of being late but as a tax payer supporting this junk service I say kill it. Either clean house and fire across the board and bring in new pilots or scrap the entire thing. But that would make sense.... this government is about sense

avidreader 9 years, 3 months ago

The only problem with all these negative comments is that, in the absence of Bahamasair, members of the travelling public would have to, at least on some routes, subject themselves to the risks of flying aboard less reliable aircraft subject to less rigid maintenance requirements and under the command of less experienced and qualified pilots who might not be subject to the strict re-certification and required simulator emergency scenarios required of ATP rated officers. As for myself, when a steep rate of climb is required for VFR on top or weather avoidance I prefer to be aboard a Bahamasair Dash 8 any day of the week. I am neither a pilot nor an employee of Bahamasair in case anyone is thinking in that direction.

DonAnthony 9 years, 3 months ago

Aviation travel is the safest form of travel known to man. Increase the flight training and standards for private airlines. If they are not safe they should not be licensed now. Either way, we have spent over 500 million to subsidize Bahamasair in the last forty years and enough is enough. We should not pay anymore so that you feel a little safer, even though your odds of dying in an airplane crash are so minuscule as to be almost non- existent.

TruthHurts 9 years, 3 months ago

One word.. PRIVATIZATION!

GrassRoot 9 years, 3 months ago

good there are so many unemployed US pilots that need flying big planes to keep their pilots' license.

avidreader 9 years, 3 months ago

In reply to "DonAnthony" I must point out that I have never been the ONLY passenger on a Bahamasair flight so it is not a matter of me as opposed to the general public feeling safer. In actuality I fly fairly infrequently but I like to recall that I am in the care of an airline with one of the best safety records in the world. Please bear in mind that Bahamasair is not the only recipient of government subsidies and still plays a vital part in the national transportation system. The whole public health care system is heavily subsidized and so is the so-called "mail boat" system where the minimal freight charges levied by the ship owners would not pay for the fuel burned for even half the voyage. Let us accept that there are a number of areas in need of reform and revision and stop these "ad hominem" remarks.

DonAnthony 9 years, 3 months ago

Our national debt is now at 6 billion, and it is time for tough fiscal choices to be made. Business as usual is not good enough anymore. Bahamasair has become completely unnecessary, in that we have small private airlines that can can service these routes at no cost to the taxpayer. As a matter of policy, govt should only be in essential services that the private sector can not service. This of course includes health care, certainly not aviation. Bahamasair is an albatross around the necks of the Bahamian taxpayer that we do not need anymore. If you are so afraid to fly there are many fast ferries available.

USAhelp 9 years, 3 months ago

I don't care what they do not gonna fly with them anymore. Go union better check yer pension n savings may have same problem as the teachers.

avidreader 9 years, 3 months ago

There are only a few so-called "fast" ferries and they are concerned primarily with Andros, Eleuthera and to a lesser extent, Exuma. While the ships are essential for the hauling of bulky freight they cannot be expected to replace passenger airline service. As for being afraid of flying, that is far from the truth, having flown in the jump seat of many an aircraft and having been in a terrible thunderstorm in an old DC-3 many years ago. Flying is safer than driving, for sure, but when things go wrong they go wrong very quickly, often without warning. Just check the recent news stories.

DonAnthony 9 years, 3 months ago

News stories lead to a disproportionate and unreasonable fear about flying. I like most people have it to a certain extent, so I can empathize. However, the odds of dying in a plane crash are 11 million to 1. You have a far greater chance of being struck by lightning than dying in a crash. So say a prayer as I do, and Godspeed. A ship is safe in a harbour but that is not what ships were made for. http://theweek.com/article/index/2465...">http://theweek.com/article/index/2465...

TruthHurts 9 years, 3 months ago

@DonAnthony

I agree! AVIDREADER needs to stop. The Bahamas is a small place, it is not hard for a local/foreign pilot to build the very same skills and credentials as the Bahamasair pilots over the years. So what they're saying is not a valid argument to keep Bahamasair operational. The deficit we face as a country because of it is more important at this time and where our focus should lie.

bimjim 9 years, 3 months ago

Whether you agree with me or not, the fact remains that the politicians - in particular the DPM - are attacking YOUR basic human rights, including YOUR right to take industrial action. And please remember that industrial action has no value if it is performed at the most convenient point iof time for the employer. --- So keep kicking the pilots, agree with the politicians, and one of theses days it will be YOUR job they are outsourcing or making you work six days a week. --- As I have said here before, the pilots did not just walk off the job, they must have had a reason. And if you keep blaming the pilots you will be allowing an incompetent management to get away - yet again - with causing a disruption and shifting the blame elsewhere. --- How did the pilots get such high salaries? Perhaps by negotiating professionally with incompetent managers? ALL unions, no matter what area, do the best they can for their members - nurses, pilots, labourers, dock workers, no matter who - and if they could get a million dollars a year for any or all of them then it is the MANAGEMENT who is to blame, not the uinion or employees.

GrassRoot 9 years, 3 months ago

The point is that what the pilots did before Xmas was not a form of an industrial action, albeit they clearly had the intent to get higher compensations through their inactions. It was and believe me I have a hard time to agree with the DPM - corporate sabotage. it was childish, short sighted and legally questionable. exactly for that the pilots should be held accountable. That does not discharge the management of Bahamasair and does not make the political decisions around Bahamasair any better.

Sign in to comment

Or login with:

OpenID

The Tribune