By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
SKY Bahamas lost more than $123,000 when 12 of the company’s pilots staged a sick out over the weekend, confirmed CEO Captain Randy Butler yesterday.
According to Butler the airline was left scrambling to find alternative measures to accommodate scores of passengers when the pilots did not report to work on Saturday.
He believes that the pilots have been misguided by a newly formed union, the Bahamian Pilots Alliance (BPA), which is trying to “strong arm” Sky Bahamas’ management into granting requests that are unrealistic.
“We have had significant loss,” Mr Butler said, “just in money spent in trying to get our passengers alternative means to get to their destinations. One airline is charging $642 for a one way flight to Marsh Harbour. In this case we have to walk up to the counter to make arrangements. We have had to charter flights as well which is a very expensive undertaking.
“The fact that 12 of my pilots have called in sick is questionable to me. I just met with them not long ago and they expressed to me that they had no grievances, now here it is the president of the Alliance is telling me that all of them are legitimately sick with sick slips. At the same time he is saying to me that they want me to sign some paper agreeing to negotiate with them.
“They want me to agree to things that are not economically feasible.
“This same president is an employee of Bahamasair whose staff were also trying to negotiate with the government. Their demands have been turned down too. I now see that those very demands have turned up in this document that they want me to sign.”
Mr Butler told The Tribune that it was his hope that Sky Bahamas and its pilots could soon reach an agreement. In the meantime, the airline has prepared a contingency plan in the event the sick out lasts throughout today.
However, BPA president Mark Johnson believes Mr Butler’s claims are just a result of his “guilty conscience” because, he claims, he has not treated employees at Sky Bahamas well over the years.
Mr Johnson added that the pilots wanted better working conditions among other things.
“This is not a sick out. The Bahamian Pilots Alliance has been trying to sit down and negotiate with Butler for four months,” he said.
“In this last letter that we sent him we told him that if he did not respond, we would take action. That action being filing a trade dispute. If this is a sick out, I had nothing to do with it.
“The working conditions at Sky Bahamas are out dated, there are people working there for 15 years who have not gotten a raise to date.”
The BPA is expected to file a trade dispute today over their issues.
Comments
proudloudandfnm 11 years, 2 months ago
I know of no other Bahamian airline that has had more issues than Sky. Planes catching on fire, planes crashing, FAA denial over silly things like duct taping components and a gouge in a propeller. Landing gear suddenly going up while the plane sits on the ground. Now pilots on sick out.
Sorry I love supporting Bahamian businesses but flying is dangerous. I won't fly you again, so sorry but where there is smoke there is fire.....
TalRussell 11 years, 2 months ago
Comrade Randy I take by your own admission that there are no female pilots employed at your SKY Bahamas Airline?
Kalikgold 11 years, 2 months ago
What does female pilots have to do with anything?
lazybor 11 years, 2 months ago
This story sounds very strange
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deablo01 11 years, 2 months ago
this situation is one that is loud and clear, people move planes, they do not move by them selves you are dealing with humans.
I am truly proud of the pilots for taking a stand on this matter, Mr butler like to bring in expats to do the job that can be done by Bahamians any way, go fish
do not mind that DNA mask, the man is a nasty individual as it relates to his ways, mortals fail to realize that the things you do come back.
for the individual that made the comment as it relates to Sky Bahamas ever employing female pilots, they did employ one or two not sure if they are still employed with the company.
bimjim 11 years, 2 months ago
Comments suggest that the CEO is not an unusual type of Boss in the Caribbean... one who treats his employees as menial servants not worthy of self-improvement or universal respect.
Other CEOs and management teams in the region have done the same and, like Mr. Butler, have come away burned for more than treating the employees with respect would have cost.
That the pilots told him they had no issues are Mr. Butler's words... that need not necessarily be true. Mr. Butler himself said the pilots had issues, yet he behaves as through he is the wronged party.
SkyBahamas lost $123,000 in one weekend... and he cannot by law fire anyone (the pilots were covered by legal doctors' notes). Did the pilots really want so much? A pay raise, perhaps? $200 a month for 20 pilots would have been $48,000... for some managers that's just too much to pay for harmony.
The managers of my former employer, LIAT, in [b]TWO[/b] instances kept contract negotiations going for a full ten years, and in [b]BOTH[/b] instances were only brought to a timely agreement by massive sick-outs, closing down the airline's 100+ departures a day for a couple of days.
In LIAT's case, there were TWO managers and TWO senior pilots taken away from their main line of work several times a week, week after week, month after month, year after year - for at least ten years. Each sick-out cost LIAT some 250 million dollars, the negotiating teams cost LIAT another huge loss - the full-salary time of senior managers and pilots who should have been at work. Add in the loss of good will from their passengers and the actual numbers probably approach a Billion (US) dollars.
Mr. Butler's lamented $123,000 is probably a quick-draw, conservative number to make the pilots think they have not made much of a dent... but SkyBahamas must count all of the damage done and be honest with themselves about their actual losses.
Earth to Butler, Earth to Butler, come in... and get with the program before you are either thrown out or the employees shut you down for good.
getrightbahamas 11 years, 2 months ago
Their chickens have come home to roost! when you advocate for and secretly support undue union and labour unrest for political reasons, dont be supprised when it happens in your company. these things catch on.
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