potter5

I have recently been offered a contract with Vietnam Airlines through one of the agencies. Having read through the contract which was only presented to me after I passed the sim check I have found one part that concerns me.

The contract states that:
If the candidate is sick or unable to attend duty for any reason on a rostered duty day for a period of five (5) consecutive days in any one month, the candidate's contract wil be terminated immediately without noctice.

I spoke to my agency who told me this is standard in all the contracts offered by agencies for Vietnam Airlines. However, my agency stated this has never been enforced by VNA.

Can someone confirm the above is in all Vetnam Airlines agency contracts? Does anyone know if it has been enforced? Finally is there anything else I should be concerned about before moving myself and family to Vietnam?

Thanks

capt. solipsist

airlines love having the discretion of firing you once you start being disagreeable. i'm sure they would not hesitate to exercise that provision if they know you are just feigning sickness out of a number of reasons (having other priorities, some sort of protest, act of defiance, plain laziness).

having said that, at the end of the day, the airline is still a business. i'm sure you can make your own estimate on how much it costs to screen and hire a new pilot. so it makes better sense for them to keep you (provided you've been quite professional in your work) rather than source out a new guy EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN SICK FOR MORE THAN THE STIPULATED 5 CONSECUTIVE DAYS.

there are lots of examples of guys in VNA getting sick or having motorbike accidents who had to be away for a couple of months in some cases, and still got to keep their jobs. in fact, there wasn't even any salary deductions made on them. their time away was just treated as vacation brought forward, i.e., offsetted in their future vacation days. these things i know for a fact, not just in VNA but in a lot of other airlines.

rest easy and enjoy Vietnam

Dream Land

I agree with capt. solipsist, I am not aware of anyone terminated due to an accident or sickness.

DesiPilot

hi Potter,

That is something VNA put in after people calling in sick when they go home just before christmas or new years and rather than coming back from vacation, would call in sick from their home town.

I had an accident last month and I had no choice but to call in sick (yes I do work for VNA) in total I called in sick for 11 days, as per VNA contract you cannot call sick for more than 5 days, so I had 5 sick days and 6 vacation days, but I still have my job. So as long as you are genuinely sick and not just calling in for the hack of it, they will work with you.

Hope this helps.

ia1166

it's been in the contract since the first days of contract pilots.

If you're sick for a long period you will be unpaid after 5 days. You can negotiate using leave and future leave. But for a long period like a month then you will be unpaid.

If they need pilots when you're better you can start again, but if they have enough pilots maybe not.

Ask DL. He was off for 3 months. Unpaid for most of it.

osdama

the best way to describe this work is, that they are very flexible, I have 2 years working here, plus life in Vietnam is easy and cheap,in the region this is one of the best work for the quality life

Regards
Osdama

learner001

Why the age limit... Possibilities for 58+ ?

capt. solipsist

Flying up to age 65 is now in the VAR Ops. Unfortunately, it is still not yet in the Vietnamese Labor Law.

learner001

Thanks, capt. solipsist. Kind regards, learner...

guemes

Any Capt. contracts for the B-777 in the wind? I was seriously considering it a few years ago but it all of a sudden seemed to dry up.

Also saw something about VN labour law prohibiting anyone over age 55. Any flexibility in that regard?