Pilot’s mental health
In the mid-2020, as the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic was steadily increasing, we caught a glimpse of another impending crisis: pilots’ mental health.
Across the world, pilots encountered layoffs, pay cuts and non-existent flight hours. It was not long before these developments took a severe toll on their well-being. As the aviation industry dealt with the most challenging event in its history, companies scrambled to cut their losses, perhaps not realizing how much it would affect their people. Crisis of safety and mental health might be looming in the horizon, while aviation battles coronavirus pandemic. A year later and it could be said that the industry has had plenty of time to evaluate the situation and enact appropriate measures. But has it risen to the challenge and what has changed over the past year?
A new normal
In the early months of the pandemic, everybody was waiting for things to return to normal. This trend has disappeared. Although IATA has been more pessimistic than ever before, airlines are adding another year to their recovery predictions and nobody waits for a miracle any longer. Meanwhile, the same problems persist. At the start of the pandemic, a shortage of pilots changed into a surplus, where and army of highly qualified professionals with nothing to do. According to Kristina Mateikaitė-Repšienė, pilots struggled to find opportunities, let alone job offers. “The situation has barely changed. Although we feel a bit of recovery, countless pilots still do not have employment. Even more uncertainty is added by the fact that, for many, a year without flying has passed. This creates a lot of pressure.”
Before the crisis, many airlines held a requirement that a pilot’s previous flight was within the past 12 months. For the mass of pilots laid off since last year, even a complete sector recovery would mean a slew of difficulties over rehiring due to skill decay and uncertainty over recruitment practices. Those that have been fortunate to hold onto their jobs have most likely felt the impact of industry-wide pay cuts. Pilots in some airlines saw their salaries reduced between 20% and 70% or more, leading to struggles between trade unions and companies that have not always ended up in pilots’ favour.
The only positive change between the first months of the pandemic and now, for some at least, was the disappearance of unreasonably tight schedules. In its early report on the deteriorating state of pilots’ mental health, the European Pilot Peer Support Initiative (EPPSI) outlined an increased workload due to increased cargo operations and emergency flights as the most pressing issue. With the decrease of emergency operations, this issue has been solved. But it, at least in part, got replaced with the international shipping of vaccines which came with its own set of challenges.
The impact on mental health
The situation pilots found themselves in should be seen within the broader context. Worldwide lockdowns resulted in the unprecedented increase in suffering and anxiety. Add to that the challenges unique to the aviation industry and it should come as little surprise that, according to a report published by the University of Dublin’s Lived Experience and Wellbeing Project, more than half of pilots in the study met a threshold for mild depression. Meanwhile, less than a quarter of aviation workers said that they have obtained support to manage their wellbeing and mental health from their employer. Some 92% said that they are in need of this help. “This is entirely unsatisfactory. At a time of huge need, very little has been done,” said Dr Joan Cahill, Principal Investigator of the project and Senior Researcher at the Centre for Innovative Human Systems.
Nevertheless, some attempts have been made at government level to tackle these issues. In December 2020, several European countries signed a declaration calling for a ‘socially responsible’ COVID-19 recovery, maintaining that uncertainty and less-than-ethical practices have plagued the industry, with workers suffering the most. But the impact of these initiatives is difficult to assess, in contrast to the impact of practices it is designed to prevent.
In April 2021, the European Cockpit Association (ECA), a major pilots’ labour union, started publishing a ‘hall of shame’ of anti-worker practices, an endeavour impressive in its scope and depth. One look at that list puts into perspective the governmental efforts and exemplifies the need to do a lot more. Most cases, listed in ECA’s ‘hall of shame’, involved atypical employment schemes such as making pilots self-employed, placing them on zerohour contracts or in pay-to-fly (P2F) schemes, all measures aimed at reducing pandemicinduced loss for an airline while, according to ECA, abusing pilots’ situations with adverse effects on their well-being.
Unintended consequences?
However, the efforts that have been made to improve the lot of pilots have not always been effective. “The aviation industry manages ‘worker well-being’ from the perspective of addressing fitness for work issues and the management of safety and risk,” said Dr Cahill. “The focus is on detecting illness and the presence of factors that might negatively impact on safe performance, for example, fatigue or intoxicants. There is little focus on promoting positive well-being and preventing illness.”
The responsibility of being ‘fit for duty’ falls on the employee and the success is measured in terms of the benefit to the company, disregarding the toll it takes on the individual. This is not a new issue but it has risen to the fore because of the pandemic and is worrying because of its connection to safety. In aviation, mental health and well-being is directly tied to safety. Its deterioration due to the upheaval in the aviation sector was a major concern in the early days of the pandemic. For example, in the first half of 2020 the US Commercial Aviation Safety Team (CAST) issued an unprecedented number of warnings, as it was believed that the effects of groundings on both pilots and aircraft may lead to unprecedented increase in accidents. In fact, that did not happen. The number of accidents between March and August 2020 decreased disproportionately, despite the effects the crisis had on pilots.
However, this was just the beginning of the pandemic. Pilots have been facing the same challenges for a year now and it is only a question of time when we will reap the consequences of that. It could be said, that by not paying attention to the mental health of pilots, the airlines are tempting fate.
What about South African pilots?
In the case of many South African Airways pilots and all SA Express Airline pilots, the pandemic has been one part of their demise, whilst the major issue has been the fact that at the end of 2019 the airline was placed into business rescue and the pilots have not been paid for a year.The South African Airways Pilots’Association (SAAPA) was given the green light to embark on a protected strike. The union, which represents the majority of pilots at the state-owned airline, has been issued with a strike certificate and has already given the airline a 48-hour notice. The association’s Grant Back said: “They are using the same old narrative of blaming us and our agreement for every woe at South African Airways. We could have worked for free for years and SAA would still have lost billions. In fact, it was us as SAAPA that took Dudu Myeni to court and had her declared a delinquent director. Nothing has ever come from the department to assist us in that fight.”
The remaining 350 pilots have demanded that the retrenchment process that started on 18 July 2020 be concluded by 15 April 2021. They want SAA to pay pilots their remuneration on termination and for the three months’ notice that pilots would have received to be paid in lieu of them working their notice period. SAAPA represents 89% of the remaining SAA pilots, 99% of whom voted in favour of a strike. This is a developing story that appears to be continuing into the coming months. Of course, it remains to be seen if South African Airways will ever start up again and if the airline does start as version two, what will become of the pilots? We have been reliably told that SAA will retain the services of all the pilots of colour, whilst almost all white pilots will be retrenched. Is this an indication of aviation transformation at any cost?