Criticism of alcohol ban, staff uniforms 'ill-intentioned,' THY head says

ISTANBUL

Hamdi Topçu, Chairman of the Board of the Turkish Airlines. DHA photo

Hamdi Topçu, Chairman of the Board of the Turkish Airlines (THY), told Milliyet daily that he and Turkish Airline’s other top officials found the criticisms about THY’s alcohol ban on domestic flights and the new staff uniforms to be ill-intentioned.

‘The in-flight safety announcement is a routine. Whether a drunken passenger can follow the in-flight safety requirements is being discussed around the world, such as in Russia,’ Topçu said. In 2012, 28 drunken THY passengers bothered other passengers, ran wild and compromised the in-flight safety.

“They were handcuffed. The maximum flight duration is 1.5 hours in domestic flights anyway. Why such insistence on alcohol during these flights?’ Topçu asked. He also added that THY had not been able to get permission to fly to Medina before. ‘It was also the case for Mauritania, Iran or Libya. Now we have no alcohol service on our flights from and to eight countries,’ Topçu added.

Regarding THY’s new staff uniforms, Topçu said, ‘One of the first images of the pre-designs was leaked to the press without our permission, which is not ethical. Since then there has been much ado about nothing. It is not possible to find good intention here.’

Topçu also made statements about the Hava-İş strike last year. He said that the Hava-İş labor union decided to go a strike illegally without any collective bargaining last year. “THY management then terminated the employment contracts of 305 employees by using its legal rights. Following the termination the issue is now on trial… We expect the legal process to be finalized in a couple of months,” he added. Topçu said THY top management called the union representatives in to discuss matters continuously. ‘All these meetings were deadlocked because they always put the termination of employment of 305 employees on the table. THY employees do not want to go on strike. Maximum labor peace is guaranteed,’ he said.

Hava-İş representatives warned THY of another possible strike this month and added that they would wait one month before a strike to see what THY would do about solving the problems, including the rehiring of the 305 people made redundant. ‘Employees always suffer from strikes. If a company’s business activities come to an ending point due to a strike this means less people will work. THY is growing. Now we have 16,000 employees,’ Topçu said.