Editorial
Biman employees agitate
Oblivious of performance
Biman, which has not been cruising along smoothly for a long time, is now grappling with agitation triggered by the scrapping of pension scheme and introduction of a new pay scale falling far short of the employees' expectations. They have threatened to bring Biman to a halt if their demands are not met. Were it to happen it would be another debilitating blow to the national airline struggling for survival.
In this regard we are constrained to point out that Biman has not been providing good, let alone quality, service to the passengers. Its flight schedules are erratic to the point of being unacceptable. It is not clear what the Biman management and employees have got to say about this sordid state of the airline, but questions arise when the same employees ask for benefits, one of which they are not entitled to under public limited company rules. They cannot overlook the fact that Biman was made a public limited company in July 2007, and employees of such companies are not entitled to pension under the existing rules. Their demand is, therefore, unjustified.
Biman is a highly overstaffed organisation where the concept of human resources development is still something alien. Else, there would have been a need-based recruitment policy.
Pay hike, or benefit of any kind, has to be commensurate with employees' performance. It is a plain truth that nobody should find difficult to comprehend.
It won't be any exaggeration to say that Biman enjoys the dubious honour of being one of the worst performing airlines in the world. Regrettably, very little is being done to regain its commercial viability lost due to poor planning, corruption and mismanagement. Biman could not even capitalize on its captive Hajj market. All the airlines flying to and from Dhaka are reported to be doing good business, except our national carrier. Obviously, there should be someone to shoulder the responsibility of Biman's poor performance, year after year.
The policy makers did realise that Biman had to be overhauled and it was restructured and made a public limited company roughly three years ago. But the change has led to nothing.
However, Biman had a very good prospect of becoming a viable airline. Obviously, agitation based on unjust demands cannot be the right recipe for regaining its competitiveness. We are killing a golden goose for no good reason. Strident trade unionism cannot have a place in a highly technical and sophisticated business like running an airline.
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