PAY STRUCTURE AND BENEFIT POLICIES OF BIMAN BANGLADESH AIRLINES

Biman Bangladesh Airlines is a 100% state owned organization. On January 4, 1972 only 20 days after independence of Bangladesh following a devastating war, the journey of this airline began with no aircraft, no ancillary maintenance or engineering facilities. All it had, was manpower-2333 skilled, semi-skill and non-skilled workers inherited from Pakistan International Airlines and an incomplete building in Dhaka. At present 3900 employees (2800 permanent & 1100 temporary) are working in Biman.

Biman started its Operation with an old DC-3 received as gift. Biman’s entry into wide body era came in 1983. Biman now has a fleet of 13 aircraft consisting of 4 DC-10-30, 4 Airbus-310 and 2 F-28 flying to 3 domestic and 21 international destinations across three continents- Asia, Europe and North America.

In 1972-73, the first year of operation, Biman carried 3, 84,072 passengers and earned a revenue of TK. 79 Million. Nearly 27 years later (in 1998-99) the number of passengers increased to 12, 33,673 and the revenue earning to Tk. 30,000 million. During this period Biman has built a modern hanger to check and maintain the Aircraft.

BFCC (Biman Flight Catering Centre) is another special project of Biman. The flight kitchen of the airline has the capacity of producing 8500 meals per day. It not only provides meals for the Biman passengers, but also cabin facilities for other Airlines,

For imparting updated professional training to the employees, Biman has set up Bangladesh Airlines Training Centre (BATC) with UNDP and ICAO assistance. Now, apart from the Biman staff, many more from different organizations and universities come to BATC to get quality training. Over the years the airline has also built up projects like Biman Poultry Complex, which produces quality poultry products and seasonal fruits. Biman Printing & Press is another special project of Biman, has got the capability of High Class printing and publication.

In Biman, there are 7 Directorates namely Administration, Marketing & Sales, Customer Service, Finance, Flight Operations, Planning and Engineering, and Stores.

1.Pay Structure of Biman Bangladesh Airlines

A pay structure consists of an organization’s pay ranges for jobs grouped into grades or for individual jobs, pay curves for job families, or pay scales for jobs slotted into a pay spine. However, a system of individual job rates (spot rates) could also be regarded as a pay structure.

There are a number of pay structures available for the organizations to follow: such as graded pay structures, broad-banded structures (a variant of graded structures), individual job ranges, job family structures, pay spines, pay curve and the like. Biman Bangladesh Airlines follows a combination of different pay structures. It has separate pay structures for Administration, Engineers, and Corporate Management Info. Services (CMIS).

Features of the pay structure of Biman Bangladesh Airlines follows:

The structure contains three bands- Administrative, Engineering, and Corporate Management Info. Services (CMIS)

1.1.   Administrative

The administrative pay scale is presented in the following:

Table: Administrative Pay Scale as of 2005

Job Grades

The administrative band consists of 14 grades each of which has been tagged with a pay range. The highest and lowest rates of this band are Tk. 15000 and Tk. 1560 respectively. Jobs are allocated to each of this grades based on a non-analytical job evaluation. The evaluators sit together and based on their subjective assessment of a job’s size place it in a specific grade. In this case they hardly consider external relativity.

Pay Range

The highest grade of the band is of Managing Director (M.D.). There is no pay range for this position. An M.D. is given Tk. 23000 (fixed). Then, there is Executive Director whose basic salary falls in the range between Tk. 19300 and 22100 with an annual increment of Tk. 700 for the next four years. Each of the pay range is defined by a fixed amount of increase which is different for each grade. For example in grade one (1) the annual increment is 110 for the first seven years. When the basic exceeds Tk.3270 the annual increment becomes 120 for the next eleven years. Similar strategy is applied for the grades ranging from 1 to 7.

Size of Ranges

Size of each ranges vary greatly. While the size of range of grade 3 (1) is 114.6%, that of grade 9 is only 32%.

Biman can not give career advancement to all of the employees they recruit. Only a few can move up the ladder. Others move up to a certain grade and then get stuck in that position. Biman plans it beforehand who to give a career path and who to not and recruits people accordingly. So, those who will not be taken up the ladder are given a long range of increment along the pay range. For example, in it is reflected in grade 3(1), 3(2), and 6.

Reference Point

There is no reference point in the pay ranges of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. An individual will always be recruited at the minimum rate of a particular grade. In that case they do not give any importance to experience as Educational Qualification is the only criteria they look into.

Differentials

Differentials exist between each of the adjacent ranges. But it is not uniform in terms of any percentage. The differentials vary for each of the adjacent ranges. For example, while the differential between grade 4 and 5 is ((7120-5075)/5075) 40.3%, between grade 8 and 9 it is ((15000-12550)/12550) 19.5%.

Overlap

There is an overlap between every two adjacent ranges. But, like differentials, the overlaps are also not uniform. The overlap between grade 4 and 5 is ((10335-7120)/ (12895-7120)) 55.7% while that of grade between 8 and 9 is ((17725-15000)/(19800-15000)) 56.8%.

Pay Progression

Pay increases to individual job holders and progression within a range takes place based on their seniority. A Pay spine is used in this case.

The pay range of Biman Bangladesh Airlines is a fully structured one since it is governed by a fixed incremental system.

1.2.  Engineering

For the professional employees like engineers, Biman Bangladesh Airlines has created a job family structure. Since the fundamental activities and the basic skills required to perform the job of the engineers are closely related, Biman Bangladesh Airlines differentiated the jobs of the engineers based on their level of responsibility, skill and competence involved. Biman Bangladesh Airlines created nine different levels in the job family of the engineers.

Engineering Pay Scale as of 2005

Each of these levels is assigned with a pay range. These ranges are similar to that of Administrative pay scale except that this job family gets a higher rate of pay than the administrative one. Like the previous one there is no reference point in these ranges and each of them has differentials, overlap and pay progression.

Differential

The differentials between every two adjacent levels here are not based on any specific percentage increase. Each of the differentials is unique. For instance the differential between level 4 and 5 is ((7800-5330) / 5330) 45.4% while it is ((17100-16450)/16450) only 3.95 % between Principal Engineer and Engineering Officer.

Overlap

Overlap between every two adjacent range is also there in this pay structure. But the overlaps between jobs in the upper level of the structure are greater than those of the lower level. For instance the overlap between Chief Engineer and Deputy Chief Engineer and between Deputy Chief Engineer and Principal Engineer are 73% and 82% respectively. But between level 3 and 4 the overlap is 64%.

Pay Progression

The progression through the range is based on fixed increment. So it is associated with the time span of service since all of the employees are getting the increment every year irrespective of their performance, competence, or skill increase.

Size of Ranges

The pay ranges differ in size. The range of Officer (Engineer), level 4 and 3 are 114.3, 101.3, and 115.1 respectively. These ranges are so large because there are number of employees who will not be given a career path leading up the ladder. These levels indicate their career platue. Since reaching these levels employees will get stuck to keep them motivated the range is determined so long.

1.3. Corporate Management Information Services (CMIS)

Like the previous one, pay scale of the officers and employees of CMIS also consists of Job Family Structure. In this family of jobs six different levels are maintained to accommodate different level of responsibility, skill, and competence:

Table: CMIS Pay Scale as of 2005

Like the previous two structures, each level of this pay structure is also assigned with a pay range. There are differentials and overlaps between every two adjacent pay ranges, and the size of the ranges are not uniform.

1.4.           Progression through the Structure

Progression through all of these structures is based on promotion. Seniority, ACR, and predetermined career planning plays the pivotal role here. On the basis of seniority an employee automatically comes within the consideration for promotion. The ACR pertains to performance, skill, sincerity, and other such kinds of information. Obviously the predetermined career planning is an important factor here. Those who will be able to reach the highest grade of the structure moves faster through their pay range than those who will not be give a higher career path. These individuals are kept in a particular grade for a longer period by providing increments or time scale. That is why a number of pay range have a span of around almost 80 to 115 %.

Again, in each of these structures there are few grades like Director (Administration), Chief Engineer, Managing Director (CMIS) where only a few employees can be promoted. In these cases, those who are competent but for lack of vacancy in the next grade can not be promoted are provided with increased benefits and allowances.

  1. Benefit Policies Of Biman Bangladesh Airlines

Biman Bangladesh Airlines provides a number of benefits for its employees based on their level of employment in the organization. The allowances includes-

  • Travel Allowance
  • Meal Allowance
  • Washing Allowance
  • Trade Allowance &
  • Special Allowance

Apart from these allowances there are a number of benefits that employees can enjoy. They are:

Transport Facility

Biman Bangladesh Airlines provides a private car to each of its Managing Director and Executive Director. For grade 10, 9, and 8 of Administrative pay scale car is offered for office use only. For grade 7, 6, and 5 Micro-bus is offered to a pool of employees for the use of office purpose. And for the grades between 5 and 1 bus is given for their transportation from office to house.

Rebated Air Ticket

Employees of grades between 6 to 10 get two air ticket free every year. Apart from that they can get air ticket throughout the year at a rebated rate.

Funeral Facility

All graded employees are given this facility.

Medical facility

Depending on the grades of the employees, medical facilities of different amount are available for the employees.

Housing Facility

Housing facility is offered to the employee of the grades between 5 and 1.

Pension Benefit

So far pension benefit had been available for the employee. But recently it has been replaced by gratuity.

Training Facility

Selected employees are given training facilities to which will help them increase their skills. Biman Bangladesh Airlines has a training centre called Bangladesh Airlines Training Centre (BATC) with UNDP and ICAO assistance. It facilitates employee skill enhancement. To be eligible for this training, an employee will have to spend a minimum of one year in a job. But for the Engineers training in the joining phase is provided.

Profit Sharing

Biman Bangladesh has a profit sharing plan. But, since Biman Bangladesh Airlines could not earn targeted profit over the last ten years, this profit sharing plan is not in practice now.

  1. onclusion

The pay structure of Biman Bangladesh Airlines seems to be a broad banded one since it classified its job in three different bands of Administrative, Engineering, and CMIS. Each of these bands are then divided in several grades each of which is tagged with an individual pay range.

Again the technical jobs are grouped together based on their relevance in terms of the fundamental activities carried out and basic skills required. Each of these two families of jobs is then differentiated by the level of responsibilities, skill, and competence involved. Thus two job families are created here.

At the same time the Administrative pay structure seems to be a graded one. Here the jobs are allocated to 14 different job grades each of which has a distinct pay range with differentials and overlaps between every two adjacent grades.

So, all of these factors indicate that Biman Bangladesh Airlines uses a combination of a number of different pay structures. And in support of these structures they have a number of benefits available for employees.

Bibliography

  1. Michael Armstrong and Helen Murlis: Reward Management- A hand book of Remuneration & Practice.