Employment conditions in GA
While waiting for my group certificate to arrive (one day maybe? I guess following employment law is hard) I figured it is time to get something off my chest.
Why is it so damn hard for operators to follow even the most basic parts of employment law?
As pilots we even lionize employers that follow the award. It is crazy, the award is the bare minimum standards for employment, there shouldn't be a pat on the back for doing the minimum, I know operators aren't in the pat on the back business when pilots do the bare minimum. There was a discussion on the book of faces a few days ago where i asked if a former employer had tried to become compliant and a pilot defended the past and current practices by saying and I'm paraphrasing "how else are GA operators meant to survive?" It isn't a pilot issue if the business model doesn't support following the award, and sadly it only takes one operator in an area to break the law and force prices down for everyone until nobody can stay in business.
Why as a group we are so short sighted that we don't go to the union, or report things like underpayment or sham contracting to the FWC I will never know.
It was at least a bit heartening to see the bloke from Orange (i think) get slammed on facebook for his little hangar work for hours scheme but even then people were interested and tagging their mates.
We really do need to try better