Pilots take off about pay hikes
Date: 9 February 2004
Erika Gibson
Air force pilots are resorting to legal action because they still haven't received their market-related salary adjustments - despite having been promised them for the past three years.
The air force even made this undertaking in pilots' service contracts. Some of the pilots - mainly juniors with several years of service left on their contracts - are now taking the air force to court for breach of contract. Colonel John Rolt, defence force spokesperson, did not want to comment in the light of the litigation.
Three years ago, the air force introduced a plan that was supposed to entitle pilots to a "scarcity adjustment" on their salaries. The adjustment would have taken their salaries to about 70% of the market-related salaries for civil pilots. Under the incentive scheme, pilots' salaries were supposed to be adjusted annually, but the air force increased their salaries only in 2001.
A senior pilot in the air force earns R250 000 a year compared to the R600 000 his South African Airways counterpart earns.
The pilots suspect the air force does not have enough money to make the adjustments, but Rolt said the directorate that had to calculate the adjustments had a "personnel shortage".
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