Originally Posted by
Flash Blackman
What do you think the success of this air force blokes rule change will be? What's the feeling amongst the pilot group?
Not being a Lawyer I honestly cant say what their chance of success is. I understand it's predicated on the argument that re-employment in our contract is for "redundant" Pilots, so how can someone be made redundant from a job they never actually started. I don't believe they're challenging the T&R Pilots position in Seniority, merely their position in the pecking order for re-employment.
With such little work on at the moment, it's hard to gauge what the greater community feeling towards it is. Certainly mixed opinions from those I've spoken to about it, most of us are sympathetic to both parties recognizing the problem without a solution. Time will tell I suppose.
Unfortunately, Tag & Release has caused a lot of problems for those affected and I've got one cheek firmly planted on each side of the fence. Regional Pilots have been given a raw deal in recent years due to the simultaneous expansion of both Jet & Prop Fleets, but Air NZ have overcompensated by dumping a whole lot of them onto our Seniority list en-masse. To make matters worse, it's not only the RNZAF/External Pilots getting bitten by this, former Regional Pilots, even those who were on Tag & Release are facing the same problem as they can't go back.
Air NZ have told us they plan to be at least 30% smaller for the foreseeable future. 387 Redundancies is based on that longer term view, ~280 are active Jet Pilots the rest are Regional T&R (Last on First off means T&R Pilots need to come off the list to make those senior to them redundant). ALPA have told us Retirements are ~200 over the next 5 years. If Air NZ only re-hire to cover Retirements, that could be a long wait for our most Junior Colleagues. I can sympathise with their position that they should be 280 in-line to come back and not 387 although not sure I entirely agree with it.