More than 900 pilots will stop working overtime because of a disagreement involving pay.
The pilots will begin “zero extra work” on Friday after failing to agree on the terms of a payrise with major Colombian airline Avianca. The result could be flight delays and cancellations.
“We will no longer act to mitigate the deficiencies in the aeronautic infrastrucutre of our country, nor the administrative failings of [Avianca],” the pilots said in a statement on Tuesday.
The dispute concerns a payrise that was allegedly agreed upon in April 2009.
Avianca has said that it did offer a payrise to the pilots but they refused to even discuss it. In a statement released yesterday the airline said that it was willing to keep on talking with the pilots in an attempt to reach a negotiated solution.
But the pilots say that Avianca has “lacked the will to implement the payrise,” adding that “the [unsatisfactory] result of the negotiations up till now has forced us to take measures that will show how serious we are about this matter.”
The airline claims to have already taken the necessary measures to minimize the effects of the pilots’ proposed actions.