Thai Airways president Charamporn Jotikasthira has furiously denied union accusations that he is inefficient and the airline is plagued by irregularities, insisting his management was sound.
Responding to the airline union's complaints filed at the Government House complaint centre on Wednesday, Mr Charamporn said on Thursday that the workers' group was complaining about old issues and that the management was taking good care of the staff.
He cited complaints on the airline's losses in 2008 and 2009 and a 2004 resolution of the airline's board on fuel allowances for the airline's executives.
He said THAI was taking good care of its employees as long as its operations were not affected.
On the union's complaint about THAI's reduction in the service duration of its Airbus A340 from 25 years to 14 years, Mr Charamporn said the airline had decommissioned the aircraft that it did not use, and that most airlines also were not using the aircraft of those makes.
The decommissioning complied with the airline's reform plan as operating the aircraft would be costly. Their seats did not meet new standards, so they could not operate anyway. THAI was using many other planes well, including the Boeing 747, and it had not decommissioned as many aircraft as the union claimed, Mr Charamporn said.
He denied the accusation that THAI's assets had been depreciated and sold to people close to him. He said that most depreciated assets were aircraft.
He dismissed the labour union's complaint that the airline management intended to cut costs by downsizing its workforce.
The company had no plan to reduce personnel but intended to cut costs, and management had already explained the policy to staff during several rounds of staff meetings last year, he said.
The airline's management also discussed complaints with representatives of the union on Nov 7. It was considering complaints and taking action to solve them, Mr Charamporn said.
He said management had followed up difficulties of staff who had guaranteed loans from their cooperative. The cooperative was considering measures to relieve their hardship, he said.
Mr Charamporn said management was also speeding up staff incentives and salary rises next year.