Union wants Labor Ministry to keep out foreign helicopter pilots

Saran

The Helicopter Pilot Labor Union is seeking help from the Labor Ministry to revise the Alien Working Act to preserve jobs for locals.

"The [Civil Aviation] department has revised some conditions and allowed foreign pilots to work in Thailand, which violates the regulation that reserves such work for locals. This has caused many local pilots to lose their jobs," Saran Siripoonphol, president of the union, said yesterday.

The union has scheduled a meeting with labor officials next month to demand that the ministry revise some conditions for work permits for foreigners that were endorsed last year by the department under the Transport Ministry.

The Civil Aviation Department allowed foreign pilots and co-pilots to work in four reserved jobs - offshore, mostly for oil platforms; sightseeing; balloons and parachutes; and executive travel.

About 50-70 foreign helicopter pilots are working in Thailand, or 30 percent of the total. The government granted the privilege for foreign pilots to work in Thailand as part of its promotion of the aviation industry, while there was a pilot shortage years ago.

The union fears that more foreigners will come to steal its members' jobs.

In Malaysia, the government is moving against foreign pilots working in the same business, while Brazil is now hiring 100 percent local pilots.

Many operators in Thailand prefer to hire foreign pilots because they do not want to spend Bt5 billion on two years of training to produce one pilot.

"Foreign captains usually earn double or about Bt400,000 per month compared with Bt200,000 for locals. However, operators like to use foreigners maybe because of the company's image and also the pilots' expertise," Saran said.

According to the union, nine companies are operating in the helicopter business in Thailand - Thai Aviation Service, SFS, United Off-Shore, Air Advance, Bangkok Helicopter, Siam Land, Sri Chang Flying, Minibae and Helilux. More than half of the flight-deck crew at some companies are from abroad, mostly the United States, Canada, Japan, India and the Philippines.

The union was established four years ago and now has about 30 members out of the 150 helicopter pilots in the country.

In July, the union filed a complaint to the National Council for Peace and Order, then to the Transport Ministry, on this predicament, but neither inquiry has made any progress.

The next target is the Labor Ministry.

- Source:  http://www.nationmultimedia.com