Staffhire shafting BWIA employees =97 union head BY JUHEL BROWNE 06.08.03 Staffhire, the UK based firm contracted by BWIA to carry out maintenance=20 services on its aircraft, has been charging the airline thousands of US=20 dollars while paying less than a third of those earnings to its employees,= =20 said Christopher Abraham, president of the Aviation Communication and=20 Allied Workers Union. Staffhire was contracted by BWIA as part of its plans= =20 to reduce its operating expenses by outsourcing its maintenance operations.= =20 This was a part of the airline management=92s New Business Model 2003,=20 launched in January. Abraham said he was in possession of the contract BWIA= =20 signed with Staffhire. He asserted it showed the airline has not been=20 saving any money in its maintenance costs. =93BWIA=92s paying Staffhire=20 employees US$27 an hour for maintenance work on their aircraft,=94 said=20 Abraham. =93One man is making a ton-load of money because he is paying the= =20 employees TT$50, while he is making US$27 =97 the owner of Staffhire,=94 he= =20 said. Staffhire is said to be run by a Trinidadian who grew up in England.= =20 He also owns the Staffhire Records label which planned to release a=20 collection of songs by local performer Chris Garcia, meant for the=20 international market. Abraham said the company was also charging the following hourly rates for=20 the services rendered by its employees: =95US$29 a hour for aircraft third party maintenance, =95 US$85 for room and board when the company brings in an employee from= abroad, =95US$40 in transportation costs for each employee. He then added the local Staffhire employees were still receiving TT$50 an=20 hour. Abraham said the Staffhire contract has exponentially increased=20 BWIA=92s operating costs. Contacted Thursday night, a BWIA official said=20 Abraham=92s allegations concerning the Staffhire contract were inaccurate.= =20 =93The whole point of outsourcing is that we couldn=92t justify maintaining= the=20 number of (maintenance) staff year round for the reduced work that we have.= =20 When we pay Staffhire, we pay specially for the work done, rather than=20 maintaining that same number of employees for months on end to do the same= =20 amount of work,=94 the official said. Staffhire officials could not be=20 contacted up to press time. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************