Originally Posted by
BravoSierraLima
I have a friend on the 717 at Cobham/Airlink/NJS/whatever they call themselves these days, tells me that their cabin crew hired in the last 5 years are Altara full time employees (not QF group employees). Their 5 week ground school is unpaid, where they share a hotel room with a stranger. They make about $47k base and a tiny hourly allowance while on duty. In the Canberra 717 base, parking isn't provided for cabin crew, they have to pay $100+/month, unsure about the other cabin crew bases.
So now that most of their operation is based in SYD/MEL/CBR, the three highest cost of living cities in the country the FAs are resigning and at last count, had a roughly equal number of tech crew and cabin crew, on an aircraft that crews 2 pilots/3 cabin crew. Altara has won the contract to supply 737 casuals now apparently, taking over the old MAM contract? Just in case anyone was wondering about where conditions could go.
They are NJS now, thank god Cobham are out of the picture according to most. As for Altara, anecdotally they are not a good employer, cabin crew exist under terrible employment conditions with virtually no rights, a pathetic salary and no support. DO NOT let these conditions in, go and stack shelves at Coles! Better still do a job that society needs and is not subject to constant erosion.