PALPA demands removal of essential services act from PIA

KARACHI: Pakistan Airline Pilots Association (Palpa) on Thursday asked the government and airline’s management to withdraw Pakistan Essential Services act.

“The re-enforcement of this act in Pakistan International Airlines will not bode well for the national entity since there is restructuring going on in its organizational setup and the overall industrial environment is conducive for growth,” Captain Khalid Hamza, president PALPA said in a statement.

Hamza said further enhancement of the act will discourage employees. “It is therefore imperative that unions and employees are considered a partner and the initiatives for development should be taken with all stakeholders and employees’ representatives on board,” he added. “In order to achieve greater operational efficiencies and facilitate the realization of growth targets, the management and the government should act more prudently.”

Hamza said the management has to consider the ground realities before taking such kind of actions, otherwise the employees may feel left out and could adopt unproductive moves which would not be helpful for the airline in the long run.

“PIA has been running into losses for years, therefore, the management instead of creating threatening environment by dint of this kind of actions should look for out of box solutions to keep the airline operational and make it profitable,” said Hamza.