Originally Posted by
04jharrison
I take your point — the regulator isn’t there to negotiate pay or interfere with industrial relations.
But when an operator is breaking employment law to maintain a structure that’s non-compliant, that surely does fall within the regulator’s remit — even outside of safety. Once illegality becomes part of how the business operates, it’s no longer a “terms and conditions” issue, it’s a compliance one.
And let’s not forget — the regulator already regulates crewing. Crew planning, fatigue management, and minimum rest requirements all sit squarely within the scope of oversight. The crew themselves are indistinguishable from employees in practice, so turning a blind eye to unlawful employment structures undermines that entire system.
So while I agree they shouldn’t set Ts & Cs, ensuring operators comply with all applicable law — including employment law — is still part of the job. Otherwise, you end up regulating aircraft, not airlines.
I think that’s what he’s getting at — not that regulators should be setting pay, but that they should be stopping hidden pay-to-fly schemes that only exist because no one’s enforcing the boundaries of the law.
Regulators are tasked with ensuring that operators remain compliant with the terms of their AOC, set out within their Ops manuals, which are governed by the applicable regulations. Those regulations are derived from an overarching law, or act. They are specific to the task at hand, ie operating aircraft for (eg) CAT/RPT, Public Transport etc.
They don't, never have, and never should cover employment law. That’s a role for departments other than the aviation regulator. For example, the fair work commission in Australia. The closest an aviation regulator will come to employment law is the airlines approved CTL scheme or FRMS.
Again, pay to fly is an ‘agreement’ between the airline and the pilot. An agreement. No one forces pilots to sign up to P2F schemes, or poor Ts & Cs. There is always a choice to agree the contract.
To be fair, there are far fewer of these schemes than, say, 10-15 years ago, as market forces have forced airlines to change behaviour.
If anyone needs to step up, it’s the unions. They have the power to influence airline contracts.