Pollution,
No pilot has been demoted to F/O on any type after failure of the A330 command course, exaggerating just confirms any suspicions that you are a fool.
As others have alluded to the failure rate of the A330 is nowhere near the levels of the 767 some years ago. All of these 767 candidates were “Real” Qantas pilots, yet that didn’t help them.
There are also a number of Q Captains who have had trouble on the Bus, and are now regularly failing their recurrent sims.
Some Q pilots have even managed to fail the 737 command course, despite the excellent training (not checking) and the willingness to help anyone who needs it with extra sectors (a willingness that seems to be missing on the 330, unless you are a Q pilot!) etc…
I don’t make assumptions as to why these guys fail, just observe that it does happen. It might be best if you do the same.
Enough about that…
Regarding the integration. The agreement makes it quite clear.
With a “NEW” type ALL conditions are up for grabs. Seriously you should read it. There is no clause which says it will be on the SH award during the Domestic phase and then the LH award for international. That was something that was agreed between the parties (Q and A) and resulted in the Letter of Agreement. This is proven by the FACT that the 330 is NOT on the SH award and NEVER has been.
Now that we have that established, the next item is what should happen now.
Well the agreed LOA says that when trigger 2 happens then AIPA can elect to change to the LH Pay and Rostering system (It is not a switch to the LH award because the 330 is already on the LH award).
Now the key phrase here is the “LH Pay and Rostering system”. If you refer to the award you will see that Pay relates to the PAY section, and Rostering relates to the ROSTERING section, there is no mention of seniority in EITHER of these sections. You will find this in an entirely separate section of the award called SENIORITY, which IS NOT referred to in the LOA for a very good reason, because it was not agreed to at any stage.
If you refer back to the integration agreement you will see that it is quite specific that seniority for the allocation of flying will be decided between the parties (Q and A) and if it cannot be decided then it will go to the commissioner. So what is the problem? Why not just take it straight to Palmer? I think you know that answer to that.
Whilst it has been an ‘A’ aeroplane (for want of a better term) you have enjoyed rotating seniority. In other words, despite being more senior to you on the A list, the A pilots have had no more or less advantages than you have had. But as soon as the change takes place you can’t wait to relegate them to the depths of the Q datal system for years to come, I see this as a just a little self serving.
Do A pilots “deserve” the 330?
Did the Q pilots “deserve” the rapid expansion resulting from 767 domestic flying?
Did the A300 pilots “deserve” to be forced back to the 737?
The answer to all these questions, and many more, is – WHO CARES! The rules are applied as written, not imagined, so stop being so childish and just get on with it.
Old Pollution had a farm E - I - E - I - O
