By Gad Masereka
Kampala
The Uganda Police Force air craft crew on Thursday petitioned the right honorable speaker Rebecca Kadaga, seeking an increment of their salaries from Shs2.5 m to Shs20m, same as what the presidential crew earns.
These claimed that there is no difference between them and the presidential crew, because all of them transport very important people in Uganda. They added that although government increased their salaries last year, they need to match with the presidential pilots who earn more than Shs20m. In last year’s salary increment, the post of executive director was created for the crew whereby the executive director earns Shs22.5m and the chopper captain rose from Shs2.8m to Shs20.2m per month. The crew’s chief pilot and chief engineer, who were said to be underpaid, now earn Shs21.6m yet they initially earned Shs2.1m.
Aziz Ssentamu, a crew member, said initially they were getting Shs2.1m until they made an increment of up to Shs8.1 from July last year. He added that this money is not enough for them and hence they demand for another increment. Kadaga said she is happy with the government of Uganda for responding to the petition by the police pilots last year. She promised to forward their request to the responsible office for consideration. She added that their work is important towards the country because they transport state officials aboard in the police aircraft.
However she was happy with female pilots in PAW and was told some of the women pilots will either fly or be part of the crew for the new police aircraft which is expect to make nonstop trips across the continent. The pilot in-charge of training in the police air wing unit Ronald Kakande says salary increment will motivate other pilots to join government, since the money they earn will be different from that of other pilots. Kakande added that pilots at the Soroti flying school are benefiting from the standardization, but the police pilots have been left out.
