Thai Airways International's board has bowed to its labour union's demand for a pay rise and an extra bonus.
THAI president Sorajak Kasemsuvan said the board on Friday approved a 7.5% pay increase for Level 1-7 employees whose salaries range between 7,000 and 30,000 baht.
The board also gave the go-ahead for an average 5.75% wage hike for workers at management levels 8-10 and an average 4% pay rise for director-level employees. THAI's average pay increase is 6.77%.
It has also agreed to set aside 300 million baht as a special bonus to be divided equally among the 26,000-strong workforce, he said.
The packages follow the Jan18-19 labour strike at Suvarnabhumi airport mostly by the airline's ground staff. The work stoppage delayed numerous flights, both domestic and international, and left many passengers frustrated.
"The extra bonus is to boost the morale of workers and give them an incentive to commit to this year's target," said Mr Sorajak.
The THAI president said the airline's management would also review guidelines for the payment of a separate 200-million-baht performance-based bonus already approved by the board.
The labour union has been asked to jointly discuss and formulate guidelines for the payment, after it complained that the existing plan was unfair.
"The guidelines for payment might have been unfair, especially to low-level operational level staff. This time we will make sure that the criteria used are fair," he said.
Jaemsri Sukchoterat, the THAI union leader, yesterday said the union was pleased with the board's decision.
"We've asked to take part in considering the guidelines for performance-vased bonus payments. The rules aren't quite fair," she said.
In another development, Airports of Thailand board chairman Sumeth Phomanee said yesterday the board had endorsed the nomination of Sita Divari as a board member.
He shrugged off speculation that Mr Sita would replace him as the chairman.