SIA Cost-Cutting Measures Will Affect 10K Staff & It Includes Compulsory Unpaid Leave

You’d have known by now that the coronavirus isn’t just affecting people’s health; it’s affecting many people’s livelihood.

Just take a walk around (remember to keep a 1-metre distance away from anyone you encounter) and you’d see countless closed shops or places for rent.

But obviously the most severely hit one is the travel industry, and one of them is the airlines.

If you’ve come in to our app daily, you’d have read about how SIA is cutting 96% of its scheduled capacity till end-April 2020 due to the tightening of border controls around the world (including Singapore, of course).

138 SIA and one SilkAir aircraft out of a total fleet of 147 will be grounded, in what SIA called the greatest challenge the group has faced in its existence.

Scoot will also suspend most of its network, resulting in the grounding of 47 of its fleet of 49 aircraft.

Needless to say, that’s going to affect many people in the company.

After all, those staff would be redundant for a long, long time.

It was reported that nearly 27,000 SIA staff have been offered a voluntary no-pay leave scheme.

Do note that it was voluntary.

According to The Straits Times,  SIA Group has also drawn on its lines of credit to meet its immediate cash flow requirements and has even consulted several financial institutions for its future funding requirements. In other words, borrow money lah.

But now, it seems like it’s worse than you imagine.

SIA Cost-Cutting Measures Will Affect 10K Staff & It Includes Compulsory Unpaid Leave

In an internal memo that was seen by CNA, it’s no longer just voluntary.

That is after SIA reached an agreement with its union, because if SIA anyhowly do things, the union will bring out its fork pitch.

So what’s agreed?

Well, there will be no-pay leave for all staff up to divisional vice-presidents, varying days of compulsory no-pay leave every month for pilots, executives and associates, as well as a leave of absence for staff on re-employment contracts.

Yes, it’s now compulsory instead of voluntary.

Need money for milk powder and is willing to work for it? Go find a solution, my friend.

More information will be released tomorrow (24 March 2020).

The high-ranking officials have already announced a pay cut previously, so if they’re going to be on unpaid leave, that would render the previous decisions pointless.

Because a 12% pay cut of $0 is still $0.

Now, we can only pray that this—

Reader Bao: No, don’t just pray. You can do something

Oh, right.

Practise good personal hygiene and social distancing, and visit a doctor if you feel unwell. And don’t travel—if not you might have to face certain consequences.