SriLankan promises quarantine facilities for crew after spat with Pilots' Guild

National carrier SriLankan Airlines said yesterday that it was in discussions with the Ministry of Health (MoH) to secure paid-quarantine facilities for all its employees – including pilots and cabin crew – that test positive for COVID-19.

“Whist awaiting the written confirmation from the MoH, we have already transferred our asymptomatic COVID- 19 positive staff to paid-quarantine facilities to ensure their comfort and will continue to do so with the guidance of health authorities,” a notice to employees from Chief Executive Officer Vipula Gunatilleka said yesterday.

Two asymptomatic pilots and three cabin crew were accordingly transported from the Government- run facility to a hotel in Hikkaduwa, the Sunday Times learns. The management and board of SriLankan Airlines also decided yesterday to allocate a hotel in Negombo for their asymptomatic, infected staff. Verbal MoH approval has been granted.

But the development came only after an ugly spat with the Airline Pilots’ Guild of Sri Lanka (ALPGSL) in which the union accused the management of “being unwilling to accept their sheer incompetence” in organising a private facility for asymptomatic staff who have tested positive in the line of duty “while attempting to hide behind a shabbily worded, factually lacking press release aimed at tarnishing the reputation of its dedicated pilots”.

This was in response to a press release issued by the SriLankan management on Thursday stating that members of the ALPGSL executive committee had, against a stressful backdrop, “decided to act in a self-centered manner, not only causing severe disruptions to the Airline’s operations but jeopardising the Airline as well as the development efforts of the country”.

The statement claimed that the union had “forced members to resort to unacceptable action by refraining from consenting to report to work on rostered off-days by refusing the duty call or being unresponsive to calls from the Company”.

The dispute broke out on December 29 when the ALPGSL alerted CEO Vipula Gunatilleka that some of their flight crew had undergone difficulties after having tested positive for COVID19. They were sent to quarantine centres “which were of very poor standards,” internal communication said.

The CEO responded on Monday that the company had been “exploring all possibilities” to get the Government to allocate a suitable facility for employees.

But the union shot back that proactive measures had not been taken during the preceding two months when two separate positive cases emerged from within the flight crew cadre. Both times, it said, it was the ALPGSL that intervened to have the patients transferred to a privately-maintained facility using relationships established by members in a personal capacity.

The union also did not believe that alternate strategies to accommodate staff were being explored by the company. It insisted that whatever measures that were taken were the “result of being coaxed and edged by the union(s) and not out of compassion or any form of accountability towards ensuring one of your most precious resources are cared for”.

The ALPGSL decided thereafter that its membership would refrain from undertaking flights on days designated as “off days” in the current roster. The dispute escalated over the next few days with the board and the management going public on Thursday to say it was “thoroughly disappointed that one segment of the Airline’s employees is intentionally undermining the efforts of the rest of the committed and valuable employees of the company and the determination of the Government of Sri Lanka”.

Mr Gunatilleka said yesterday that the pilots’ decision to refrain from flying on off days had posed “no issues so far”.