Flight International Online news 10:00GMT: All Nippon Airways (ANA) has averted a 24-hour pilots’ strike planned for today but has yet to reach an agreement with the unions.
The Star Alliance carrier says its four pilot unions have called off a 24-hour strike planned for today following negotiations late last night with ANA management.
Air Nippon Crew’s Association, Air Nippon Network Pilot Union and Air Next Crew’s Association at 10:15pm last night Tokyo time called off the strike and later the ANA Crew Association followed suit, the carrier says.
Pilots for all four unions were planning to go on strike from midnight last night, action that ANA claims would have had no impact on its international services although it estimates many domestic flights today would have been cancelled or delayed.
The pilots threatened to go on strike because they are unhappy with management’s response to pilots’ demands for year-end bonuses, says an ANA spokesman in Tokyo.
He says the two sides have yet to reach an agreement but the negotiations are continuing and it is standard practice for the airline to award year-end bonuses.
The cause of the dispute “is not so much the amount of the bonus but how it is calculated,” says the ANA spokesman.
Normally the pilots receive a bonus that is a multiple of their monthly basic salary but this time the pilots want their allowances to be included in the calculation, he adds.
LEITHEN FRANCIS / SINGAPORE
Source: Flight International
