Lion Air Pilots to Sue Management

Labor Union-Pilot Association of Lion Group (Serikat Pekerja Asosiasi Pilot Lion Air / SPAPLG) is planning to file a lawsuit against the management Indonesia’s low-cost airline Lion Air.

SPAPLG Chief Eki Adriansjah said the move is made following the alleged union busting by the company’s management.

“We will file a lawsuit against the management because of the union busting it has committed,” Eki said in Jakarta on Sunday (7/8).

It is planned that lawsuit will be filed to the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Deparment on Tuesday next week, Eki said.

He added that management also violates Law Number 21 of 2000 on Labor Union and said that SP-APLG had been formally registered at Tangerang Manpower Agency with the registration number 558.4/2529-HI/2016.

Lion Air, however, does not recogzine the Union.

On Wednesday (3/8), Lion Air President Director Edward Sirait annouced that the company does not recogzine the union labor within the company.

Edward also said the pilots who claimed to become members of the union are ‘troublesome pilots who often make mistakes’.  Edward even called those pilots ‘swindlers’.

The use of the company’s name without permits, he added, is an act of ‘forgery and fraud’.

“They often violate regulations of the management; they don’t work according the schedules and they are now undergoing a training,” Edward said.

Eki further said that the management’s rejection to the union has caused anxiety and surprises among the pilots.

According to him, the establishment of a labor union does not need an approval from the company’s management but only needs a written notification to Lion Air management.

“We sent a written notification to Lion Air management on a letter dated June 3, 2016,” he said.