Forloughed pilots? [Archive]

JW411

10th Sep 2003, 03:16

The term furlough, taken literally, means taking a leave of absence but in this context it is rather different. It is a term used in America for someone who is surplus to requirement for the moment but might be needed later.

It is a long time since I was involved in the system but I will have a go at explaining it to you.

Imagine if you will that an airline needs 250 pilots in the summer and only 200 in the winter. At the end of September the bottom 50 pilots on the seniority list get furloughed. They are no longer on the payroll and are free to work for someone else (or else take a long unpaid vacation).

In the Spring the company sends out recall notices in order of seniority to the furloughed pilots and back they go if that is their desire.

Now it could well be that some pilots might have found better jobs in the meantime so they can bypass the recall and, as long as someone junior to them accepts the recall and all vacant seats are filled, then they can continue working for their new company and still retain their seniority rights with the old one.

The crunch only comes when no one junior to them accepts the recall. In that case, they have a serious decision to make!

The legislation is laid down (as best as I can recall) in the Railway Labor Act of 1927.

I believe that the bypassing of a recall game can be played for 7 years under these rules. Some companies have local agreements better than that. PanAm pilots had considerably more than that for I had a friend who went back after 15 years. (PanAm went bust a few months later so it wasn't the smartest career move that he ever made)!

So, if you are a junior pilot you know full well that there is a good chance of getting furloughed at the end of the year. Although this system might seem cruel to the average European pilot, their US equivalent has much greater rights. He knows that he will be recalled in order of seniority and that his company cannot employ any new pilots until everyone on the seniority list has been recalled.

In our part of the world you are fired and that is the end of the matter. You have no rights and have no right of recall.

No doubt the experts will now point out the finer points and shoot me down in flames but this is my recollection of the system from 20 years ago.