A series of Vietnam Airlines pilots have resigned and sent out distress calls.

In a petition with 16 signatures sent directly to Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh, pilots of Vietnam Airlines (VNA) said that the national airline is violating the Labor Law and the working environment is not safe.

Along with that are the existing shortcomings at VNA and affirmed that it has had many dialogues with businesses over many years, but has not received cooperation.

“Over the past 3 years, we have had many dialogues with VNA but have not received any cooperation. The working environment is not guaranteed, causing frustration in the work that requires absolute safety, significantly affecting the morale of pilots. Pilot salaries are also too low compared to the general level of the aviation industry...”, the petition stated.

Pilots also believe that Circular 41 of the Ministry of Transport with its regulations related to the aviation industry and aviation labor is contrary to the Labor Law, thereby making it difficult for those who want to quit their jobs.

In 2015, the Ministry of Transport issued Circular 41/2015 amending and supplementing a number of articles in sections 12 and 14 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations in the field of aircraft and aircraft operations. Section 14.169 stipulates that “highly qualified aviation staff” who want to quit their jobs must give 120 days notice.

In addition, when converting, the operator must "terminate the labor contract and fully perform the obligations (if any) to the current aircraft operator and aircraft maintenance organization according to regulations...".

Next, Circular 21/2017 also included the above contents in the "Civil aviation safety regulations for aircraft and aircraft operations".

The pilots said the provisions in the circulars of the Ministry of Transport were contrary to Article 35 of the Constitution and the Labor Law. The contents of the above circulars did not comply with a number of issues such as the termination of labor contracts and the reimbursement of training costs were not in accordance with regulations.

Article 37, Clause 3 of the Labor Code stipulates: "Employees working under indefinite-term labor contracts have the right to unilaterally terminate the labor contract, but must notify the employer at least 45 days in advance, except in the case specified in Article 156 of this Code."

Meanwhile, the circular of the Ministry of Transport stipulates that pilots must give at least 120 days notice when they want to terminate their labor contracts. VNA has based on that to come up with unreasonable regulations when pilots quit their jobs.

In addition, according to the pilot, Article 62, Clause 3 of the Labor Code stipulates: “Training costs include expenses with valid certificates of expenses paid to instructors, learning materials, schools, machines, equipment, practice materials, other costs to support learners and salaries, social insurance contributions, health insurance for learners during the training period…”.

However, the national airline has forced pilots to reimburse costs of 2-3.5 billion VND but has no valid invoices to prove it.

VNA pilots also said that based on the circular, the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam does not grant licenses or accept pilots to transfer to other operators, forcing them to work for VNA with lower remuneration than the average level of pilots, forcing them to have to compensate VNA an unreasonable amount of money to transfer to another operator or face unemployment.

The Government Office has sent a dispatch to the Ministry of Transport to forward the reflections and recommendations of a group of Vietnamese pilots working at flight crew 919 under VNA, for the ministry to consider and resolve.

Previously, on May 11, Vietnam Airlines also sent a report about the resignation of 7 of its pilots to the Civil Aviation Authority and asked the authority to consider resolving the matter to avoid loss of state assets.

In 2015, many VNA pilots also resigned because they complained about the low salary that the airline paid. At that time, the Ministry of Transport sent an urgent dispatch to the Civil Aviation Authority and VNA, requesting that they temporarily not consider approving the transfer of operators with Vietnam Airlines' highly skilled workforce. With this dispatch, any pilots who wanted to transfer from Vietnam Airlines to another airline were denied.

In a report published in mid-2017, the average salary of VNA pilots in 2016 increased by nearly 5% compared to 2015, to 115.3 million VND per month, approximately 1.4 billion VND/year.

In 2015, the average salary each pilot of this airline received was more than 110 million VND/month, equivalent to 1.32 billion VND/year.

However, considering the general salary increase rate of other positions at the airline, the pilot salary increase is relatively low.

Specifically, while the average salary of pilots in 2016 increased by only nearly 5%, the salary increase rate of VNA flight attendants was up to 11%. The average salary of officers and employees (except the Board of Directors and the Board of Management) also increased by nearly 13%.