Not sure about the surprise of pilots getting the chop yesterday, as the rumour of redundancies among the pilot force has been around for a few months now, as has the rumour that the company were going to make an announcement, which they kept putting back. The union evidently tried several times to get an answer from Redhill as to their future plans and were told absolutely nothing. The first they evidently officially knew of anything was on Wedenesday morning when they were invited to be at Redhill for a briefing yesterday morning.
What gets me is that the majority of the pilots given notice are junior captains promoted within the last 2-5 years, and have been in the company 5-13 years. None one of the co-pilots has been given notice.
Now I can understand cutting both captains and co's to reduce crewing, but just captains does not seem fair. This is the second redundancy that Bristow has done where only captains have been hit (of course they cost more, salary wise, which will be the stock reply), but what message does it send to co-pilots wanting promotion? Get promoted and then be in the line of fire to lose your job. Perhaps it is better to remain a permanent co-pilot?
I only hope that the redundancy package offered by the company is good enough to persuade some of those nearing retirement to volunteer to go early so that the junior captains get their positions back. They are all good experienced pilots who have been given notice to go. It leaves some very senior pilots who will go within the next few years due to retirement and some very young inexperienced co-pilots. All the middle ground has been effectively removed!
No doubt it is the plan to bring in more contract pilots rather than permanent staff when the work picks up a bit.
I don't believe in hacking those who have been in the company a long time or on age (as happened the last time), but I think it is very unfair to those who have served 5+ LOYAL years in the company to be given notice of redundancy yet younger and more inexperienced pilots remain who have only been in the company 1-3 years.
I hate to hear of any redundancies, but if there must be some, then it should be LIFO and rank should NOT come in to it, only time served.