Mr A from P,
What a pleasure to hear from you again after such a long while; I really do not want to get bogged down in this debate again, after so many years. I'm on the outside now but have always wished to imput some experience into this ongoing debate. Sad that it has been dribbling on for so many years with apparent lack of progress.
However, to the point: lots of dosh has absolutely b#@g@r all to do with anything. The rate of pay is for the skill required. If I flew an a/c for a private 9-5 Mon -Fri operator I would expect the same salary for the job. It is an argument going back to B'Cal, when the CEO was asked what % extra he paid crews for anti-social overtime working. He had no idea because it was not in the calculations. That is true for every airline, but not for Ford.
If you calculate the hours a flight crew operates outside those 'social hours', and then calculate the overtime % and from that calculate the basic pay, everyone would be horriffied and all crews would resign tomorrow.
Perhaps they would all become plumbers or electricians. Then the anti-social hours would be truely rewarded. However, I do realise that using this calculation, starting from what would be a healthy basic salary, would be unaffordalble for most airlines. That is why the compensation for the anti-social working hours and conditions should be paid in time not money. To give crews only the legal minimum time off is pathetic, purile and unnecessary. Extra time off would not reduce prodcutivity, so where's the beaf? As said many time a full 900 hours + adequate SBY's could & should be achieved in 180-190 days pa. Why then do airlines squeeze 230 duty days out of crews? Totally inefficient & counter productive. The idea that for ej to have their new roster pattern they need to forgo a weeks leave. What a joke, & a true indication of the mental state of the management. Childish jealousy.
The whole rostering issue is created because CAA's guidelines & philosophies are not followed nor policed, and that 99% of airline CEO's, plus some rosterers, hate pilots. Unions nor pilots have not caused the demise of any airline. It is the greed and incompetance of management; time & time again. The major casulaties are the enthusiastic employess of all departments who wish a career in the industry; the same goes for ops staff & engineers as flight crew.
But please, I do not want to reopen the threads that ran & ran for most of 2004. Those people who want to spend their energies posting here, will be beter advised to direct their efforts to the heart of the problem in their own back yard, which includes their relevant CAA.
Last edited by RAT 5; 23rd May 2005 at 22:25.