Employees of Manta Air, including pilots, have decided to go on strike against salaries in Rufiyaa.
Manta Air began giving 50 percent of the salaries in Rufiyaa due to dollar shortage as a result of the government's foreign currency policy.
The company brought the change in April after it was forced to exchange 20 percent of the dollar income.
There are around 50 pilots in Manta Air, of which 10 pilots work in the management department.
Adhadhu understands that the employees will go on strike on August 3. They have now informed the management about the strike.
"Pilots and crew will not go to work on that day," a pilot told Adhadhu.
A company official told Adhadhu that they decided to pay its employees in dollars from the very beginning because it earns in dollars.
"But when the government forces us to exchange some of the dollars we receive now, the company is also suffering financial losses. So we changed part of our salary to Rufiyaa to save the company. How can we implement something that cannot be afforded?"
Following the change in April, there were many discussions with the management, but the company said they could not pay their salaries as before because they were not receiving enough dollars due to government policy.
Recently, employees of Trans Maldivian Airways (TMA), the country's largest seaplane operator, also announced a strike.
The company then decided to pay the full salary in dollars and the strike was called off. Manta said the reversal of the decision raised questions about the fair implementation of the dollar exchange policy by the central bank.
The price of dollars in the black market is now at MVR 20.20 per dollar despite the government claiming policy changes were brought to bring down the rates.
