The Sri Lanka Air Traffic Controllers’ Association (SLATCA) has expressed dissatisfaction with the purportedly unfair decision by Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation, Attorney Nimal Siripala de Silva who has instructed the relevant officials to recruit new Air Traffic Controllers subject to a bond of Rs. 10 million and a compulsory service period of 10 years.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, de Silva said that he had directed and instructed the management of the Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Pvt.) Ltd. (AASL) in this regard during a recent visit to the Ratmalana Civil Aviation Services Training School. It was decided to recruit 50 trainee Air Traffic Controllers by 1 April and de Silva had emphasised that the Government spends nearly Rs. 5 million to train an Air Traffic Controller. “Therefore, Air Traffic Controllers leaving the country after such training is an unbearable loss to both the country and the aviation service sector,” he said.
Trainers at the Facility had notified de Silva about the technical issues barring training activities and the latter had instructed the Chairman of the AASL, Major General G.A. Chandrasiri to facilitate financial inputs in order to resolve all such issues.
Meanwhile, SLATCA President Thisara Amarananda told The Daily Morning yesterday (21) that de Silva had instructed to increase the bond up to Rs. 10 million. “When we recruit a person to the profession, he/she has to sign a bond. It was a three-year bond initially, and the amount was only about Rs. 1.2 million. When they recruited the last batch, they increased the bond up to Rs. 4.5 million.
“Many of those who are well qualified refuse that because it is very unfair. It is illegal. It cost about Rs. 5.5 million, and they had reduced it to Rs. 4.5 million. Now, de Silva has increased it to Rs. 10 million and I think that it is unfair. We are having negotiations with our Human Resources Department and Chandrasiri. Until they complete the said time period, they cannot leave. If we want to leave, we have to pay this amount of money to the Company. If we challenge this in court, they won’t allow this, but, at the moment, we also want to keep people, but this is not the actual way. They are dissatisfied with it because well qualified persons do not come in. Last time, we had to select those who were not selected earlier. It is not good for this profession. The Air Traffic Controller is not getting the same salary equivalent to the amount of the bond,” he added.
Amarananda further noted that this method is similar to the military where professionals would have to stick to a bond without any salary increments. “People will not like it. The bond should be the value of the salary. It should be equal to the salary. That is why it was earlier Rs. 1.2 million. The current bond value is therefore unfair,” he added.
Speaking to The Daily Morning earlier, Chandrasiri said: “We will work out a plan for that, with them. We will not close the airspace. We will make sure that the work continues. This is a national endeavour. We have our all-time plan so we will work something out. As a country, we must have our reserves available. We will start working accordingly.”
The SLATCA had raised concerns over a potential standstill of air traffic movements owing to the increasing number of Controllers resigning from their posts. Issuing a statement in this regard, the Association noted that 19 Air Traffic Controllers had resigned from their posts within a span of a year.