A Realistic Look
The leading thread on the Middle East Forum is Emirates Application 2022. Many keen applicants seeking greener pastures looking for better salaries or career opportunities. Good luck to them all.
No doubt they have all availed themselves of information regarding salaries, allowances, hours, perks, etc. The debates are already running on which airlines pay what and the effects of taxes on take-home pay.
However, there are many aspects that are not covered by this clinical look and are not easily divined from number crunching. One has to look deeper into the systems at play and how they translate into reality. If planning on staying any length of time then trends become important to consider.
Emirates employees have twice this year been promised a salary review in July. We are now in July and apparently working for this new salary but nothing has been revealed as yet. We wait in anxious anticipation. There are various aspects that could be increased which would be welcome. What other changes may be in store are not yet revealed. Changes to how you actually earn the money can be easily revised and have been over the years, mostly resulting in an increase in work for the same pay. This is done primarily with adjustments to the credit and duty hours and manipulation of the Productivity Pay.
The most highly utilized system is to compress rosters in any month where there is leave taken. This effectively claws back the hours without the pilot exceeding the productivity threshold because it is not prorated when leave is taken. For example, in a 30-day month, the Productivity threshold is 85 hours. Anything over this earns good money. However, if a pilot takes, say, 7 days leave within that month, the system will try and maximize hours up to 85 within the 23 remaining days as, effectively, this is free productivity for the Company.
It is not hard to do in the remaining days. A combination of,say, a couple of ULR flights, and a couple of shorter European Flights will put the hours around 85. Bear in mind the pro-rated hours in the month would have been about 65 so the Company has gained 20 hours of Productivity for which it has not had to pay. You have effectively sacrificed those leave days for nothing gained. 20 productivity hours is worth AED 14000 for Captain and 9900 for an FO.
In an office environment, this would be analogous to an employee working over weekends because they took leave.
How effective this is, depends on the exact distribution of leave taken within the month but any pilot who has Leave will generally see a roster compressed to above the pro-rated amount. If the leave period rolls over 2 months then there are two consecutive opportunities for the company to make good. Most feel cheated. If the company actually assigns forced leave for a few days then this adds insult to injury.
This has roll-on effects within the Bidding and Leave systems. ULR flights will not be assigned to top bidders if they are used to maximize productivity by assigning these flights to lower bidders who took leave. The computer is not trying to satisfy bid requests. It is trying to maximise productivity at no cost.
The leave system is impacted because no sane person would take short periods of leave in a month several times a year. They would be likely to still work to the productivity threshold and the leave has effectively been sacrificed for no money. As a result, those who recognize this dynamic use the most optimum way to prevent this by taking the maximum allowable leave within the calendar month to avoid the rest of the month being compressed. If most are bidding for long periods in peak months, then the leave satisfaction is compromised as its harder to grant long periods of leave than short.
This is but a glimpse into the finer aspects that I would advise any prospective new joiner to consider. The reality of working hard on return from leave or before leave tends to dampen any benefit of the leave. Hence there is often underlying fatigue and resentment.
I have not touched on the number of tasks that are distributed that do not attract any credit or duty hours at all despite them being required for a host of reasons from the company. The internet has allowed much to be delegated to one's personal time. Perhaps someone else can list the many examples.
I mentioned trends with respect to remuneration. In a nutshell, the take-home pay has dropped in real terms for the past 2 decades. This is a feature with most airlines. It is well below inflationary increases.
World inflation often hits Dubai hard as so much is imported and transported. Arabian Business reports year-on-year inflation for April as 4.6% and it's only just starting to bite. Transport costs are up 28.8% and Food 8.6%. These costs have yet to filter through and are likely underestimates.
I have my doubts as to whether remuneration will increase much more than 5% though it is long overdue. Let’s see. Unless the package is raised around 10% you are likely worse off next year than now. After all, goods have to be transported all the way here from countries that are already approaching double-digit inflation.
The USD is riding high. But again this can change. I have seen the effect of a weak dollar in the UAE. If one has overseas commitments then consider this. There is Exchange Rate Protection but it's to a limit of 15% for 50% of salary only. There have been much bigger historical swings on the Dirham, almost to the point of debating unpegging from the USD.
There is a reasonable turnover of pilots here. Much experience has left despite the pandemic. Few have left because they simply wanted more money. Many left for lower salaries but sought what they perceived to be a more balanced and predictable treatment. Uncertainty on, leave, medical claims handling, loss of license surety, sickness policies, disciplinary in the event of honest errors, etc. made them seek pastures where they perceive better representation, transparency, and equitable treatment.
I asked a recently resigned TRE why he was taking a lower-paid job as an FO in the USA. The response: “It's how they make me feel”. One can’t argue that….
To all my friends leaving and all those joining, I wish you all the best.
Last edited by Pixy; 1st Jul 2022 at 18:28.