SriLankan Catering signs three year agreement with main employee union

SriLankan Catering Services has signed a three year Collective Bargaining Agreement with its main employee union, the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya, as it embarks on a massive expansion that will quadruple production capacity next year.

"This is an extremely progressive agreement as the company has looked after the needs of our employees for the next three years in a manner that satisfies the aspirations of all our staff," said Dilip Nijhawan, CEO of SriLankan Catering Services.

The agreement covers many areas including increments over a 3-year period and adjustments in minimum and maximum points of salary scales of various grades of staff. A variety of allowances and benefits such as personal accident insurance, funeral expenses have also been increased.

SriLankan Catering Services is the catering arm of the SriLankan Airlines Group, and provides catering services for flights of all airlines that use Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport.

The Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya counts amongst its members 306 of the Company's 389 permanent employees. The Company also offered the terms of the agreement, which will be effective until the 31st of March 2007, to all employees who are not members of the JSS, and all of them have signed up to share its facilities and benefits.

"We are happy with the agreement, as it was signed after much consideration and negotiations which were conducted in a cordial atmosphere over a period of time," said the Executive Committee Members of the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya at Srilankan Catering. "This agreement ensures the career progress of the employees of SriLankan Catering Services while taking into consideration the financial position of the Company and ensuring its future progress. We are extremely pleased that the Company has offered this agreement to the rest of the staff, and that all of them have accepted it."

The company has seen a tremendous increase in the efficiency of its production capacity up to about 14 meals per employee, from only six meals per employee five years ago. It became the first airline catering service in the Southeast Asia region last year to be awarded the prestigious ISO 9001:2000 certification.

SriLankan Catering Services will quadruple its production capacity when its new 25 million dollar flight kitchen is commissioned next year to exploit existing and emerging opportunities in the airline catering industry.

The new facility will have a capacity to produce 4.75 million meals per year, as compared to the existing capacity of 1.65 million meals. The 143,000 square feet building will be spread over a 5-acres property on the airport premises. Construction is scheduled to be completed in October 2005.

Demand for airline catering at BIA has been increasing over the last few years as Sri Lanka has been enjoying a boom in the tourism industry that has seen record tourist arrivals to the country, coupled with an upturn in economic growth. With the international aviation industry recovering from the effects of September 11, 2001, and Sri Lanka also enjoying a period of peace over two and a half years, more and more airlines have launched services to Colombo and beyond. Many airlines with existing services have increased their frequencies as well.

Demand for flight catering within the SriLankan Group has skyrocketed, as SriLankan Airlines has embarked on a massive growth plan, which has seen the continuous addition of many new destinations and increased frequencies to existing destinations. The airline now flies to 42 destinations in 23 countries.

"I wish to extend my congratulations to all those involved in the negotiating of this agreement, both in the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya and the management of SriLankan Catering Services," said CEO Nijhawan.