J’cans join T’dad colleagues in expressing disgust over non-payment of incentives

(Jamaica Observer) Caribbean Airlines (CAL) pilots in Jamaica on Friday joined their colleagues in Trinidad in registering disgust at the company’s failure to pay them their full salaries over the past four years.

“They went out to the airport today (yesterday) and they issued letters addressed to the chairman, who is stationed in Trinidad, but they delivered them to the general manager here,” Gordon Woodstock, executive administrator of the Jamaica Airline Pilots Association, told the Jamaica Observer Friday night.

“The Trinidad pilots presented their letters on Tuesday to the management there, expressing their disgust that they haven’t been paid their variable incentive pay from as far back as 2010,” Woodstock added.

The move by the Jamaican pilots, he said, was a show of solidarity and unity with their Trinidadian colleagues, as the variable incentive payments to the Jamaicans have been long outstanding. Woodstock explained that the incentive, which is a part of the pilots’ compensation, has three components — corporate, departmental, and individual — and, when paid in full, works out to 20 per cent of the pilots’ salaries.