Malé, Maldives – Seaplane pilots of the national carrier of Maldives, Maldivian have ended their protest after discussing the issues with the management.
According to Maldivian, the airlines management had agreed to find solutions and rectify the issues which the pilots were facing. After the discussions with the management, all pilots have resumed their work as per Maldivian.
According to the information received by ‘The Times of Addu’, the pilots protest over reduced salary over the past six months and also due to their chief pilot, Musthafa Mansoor was terminated without any prior notice. The pilots had also sent a letter to the Managing Director of Maldivian, Ahmed Mihad, highlighting their concerns about the termination of the chief pilot and their salaries.
While Maldivian had told their staffs that their salary will be paid in full starting from December 2020, Maldivian management has not increased the salaries back to pre-pandemic levels. After the Covid-19 pandemic hit Maldives, Maldivian had lowered their staff salaries by 50 percent.
Speaking to local media, Media Director of Maldivian, Moosa Waseem has told that only a few pilots had protested today and their seaplane operations was not affected. However, according to the information received by ‘The Times of Addu’, Maldivian had to charter flights from Trans Maldivian Airways (TMA) to send their passengers to the resorts.
Maldivian’s staffs have raised issues of their salary while a parliament committee had decided to send a letter to Island Aviation Services (IAS), parent company of Maldivian, because their top management was taking higher increments than stipulated in the Finance Ministry guidelines for salary structures of State Owned Enterprises.
The report by the State-Owned Enterprises Committee showed that Deputy Managing Director of IAS Aishath Jennifer’s wages had been increased from MVR 45,400 to MVR 67,630. The chairperson’s wages previously stood at MVR 12,875, which was increased to 19,100. The wages of board members were increased from MVR 8,000 to 11,850. This is an increase of 48 percent.
