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Old 11th Jul 2019, 10:08
  #31 (permalink)  
Pixy
 
Join Date: Jun 2000
Location: UK
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A comparison of which airline is the worse for cutting terms and conditions or which behavior towards their employees is more abhorrent etc., is futile without a detailed examination of many factors. No one has enough access to make an accurate assessment. Besides what is gained apart from perhaps a list of employers one should avoid?

The fact is that industry-wide the T&C have been radically eroded in the airline industry. And indeed in many other industries. The entire fabric of corporate behavior has changed, putting the interests of shareholders and executives in direct conflict with those of the employees with devastating social implications for the immediate stakeholders and indeed the public at large. The Boeing 737 Max fiasco is a glaring example. As the regulators are in the pockets of corporates it is therefore not surprising that they are not looking further afield to see how endemic this is in the entire industry, though with differing manifestations.

One only has to look at France Telecom whose executives are on trial for murder because of their systematic abuse of employees leading to 35 suicides, to see how far individuals will go to protect their bonuses. (See WSJ) And they had a union for all the use it was to the 35 driven to such desperation. Imagine the implications of this in the airline industry. Thankfully we are not there.

In our own sphere however, I feel that the pilots themselves must take some responsibility. One does not need a union to retain T&C and slow the erosion. Much is in the hands of the employees themselves if they are smart, professional and diligent. We have allowed ourselves to be manipulated and marginalized often without a murmur of dissent and in some cases with groups working in direct conflict to enable their employers to divide and conquer with ease.

Obviously many of us cannot directly confront the employers on an individual basis. But through small acts of sensibly based passive resistance we can demonstrate that some changes are simply not worth the trouble, some cleverly introduced erosion should be rescinded, or some historic assumptions should be reconsidered.

I am often amazed at pilots who come to work clearly sick or fatigued. When queried they express the opinion that they will be victimized for reporting unfit. In my experience that is unlikely unless they themselves have been abusing the system. Aside from that ,there are in fact many remedies to this.

Primarily, it is unprofessional and unfair to do this. Sickness, if genuine can be validated by medical practitioners giving the company a headache if this leads to disciplinary action. Many call in sick if they are in fact tired or fatigued. In my own company these are handled quite differently though most do not know the subtle differences. The company itself has skewed the process to muddy the waters. My company calls fatigue "sickness" using essentially the same rostering codes for the two. Ridiculous really, as they are not remotely the same thing. But convenient to hide the fatigue aspects in the sickness statistics from the regulator to prevent interference in ever increasing duty times.

One is either sick or fatigued, yet many will report sick when in fact they are fatigued, playing directly into the company’s agenda. These days the fatigue itself can often be validated with modern Apps, the model of which is exactly what the company FRMS itself uses. A good record of duties and appropriate screenshots would be enough to rebut any future queries. Insist on a printout from the company FRMS for future use.

In many instances, pilots avoid putting in fatigue reports when this occurs during a duty. Either through fear of reprisal or sheer laziness. Enough reports on the actual duties that are a step too far will soon see the company make changes. It always has. The managers do not want a trail of evidence leading to their inaction.

Pilots do not bother writing about the obvious abuses in duty times. One instance is likely to be ignored but a couple of hundred will not. This only represents a small percentage of the pilot contingent. Duty times before blocks off were extended to more realistic values through mass protest and some judicious use of media. We still have the same duty time after blocks on which falls way short of the reality. However it is seldom mentioned. I guarantee a few hundred polite emails on the inadequacy of these timings would see change. I can also be confident few have the skills or are too timorous to do this despite the fact they would not be victimized.

Pilots return from leave and fly compressed rosters, clearly fatigued in the process, without doing the right thing and using the tools available to avoid this happening. At the same time they allow themselves to be taken advantage of economically. Have they no self-worth at all?

If one does not take the time to logically, unemotionally and politely, put in writing the failures and dangers of the various systems that govern us, one can hardly be surprised when the management assume all is well and push the limits a bit harder. In many instances they actively encourage us to do this to have the data to show the executives in order to drive through the changes. Yet many do nothing. They might speak up at some forum which is nothing more than egotistical venting as there is no written trail so feared by the top.

No one has earned the right to comment on Pprune unless they have done all they can in their sphere to resist stupidity and officially document their objection to irrational and dangerous changes.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
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