BALPA keep amending the inhibitors to try and broadly flatten the gradient slightly and allow a greater spread of work down the seniority list. However, someone’s gold is another person’s sh*t. Everyone has their own preferences. I’m about 75% on the Airbus FO list and broadly get what I want (providing I don’t get shafted with global constraints). The downside is that I have to work every weekend to have a chance of achieving reasonable trips.
Weekends worked seems to be the main bug bear at the moment. I really think BA needs to perhaps introduce a minimum number of weekends worked even if you’re at the top of the list. Maybe 1 weekend in 4 or even 8 weeks with junior people getting 1 off in 4 (or 8). How it would be introduced is a discussion for later. Personally I don’t mind on the whole but it really affects others. Golden days are great but the lead time for putting them in is quite long and many of my friends outside of the industry haven’t quite grasped that. Therefore a lot of social invites for weekend get-togethers have to be turned down due to work.
Reserve is something else that needs to be looked at. A 28 day block is tough on your personal life. I believe BALPA and BA are thinking of introducing shorter blocks in addition to the current blocks to give people a bit of a choice. Without moaning about part timers, a lot of them haven’t done reserve for years if the computer is physically unable to insert a reserve period into their roster without clashing with their part time weeks. That to me doesn’t seem fair and would spread out the reserve duties a bit if it was fixed.
champ