As promised, a summary somebody produced:
MEETING 13 JUNE 2001
Introduction
A meeting of North Sea Helicopter Pilots was held recently primarily as a social event, but also to give an opportunity for the pilots of both sides of the airfield to acquaint themselves more accurately with the working conditions and rosters that each company worked to.
The Scotia situation
The company has been promising the pilots a new roster (8-6, which over 28 days gives 16 on and 12 off count up your days on in any 28-day period and see that it comes to an average of 19) for the last eighteen months or so and as at the beginning of April they have achieved exactly that (no 5-2-5-9 roster as we had been led to believe because they didn't want that). However, this has left the company some two to four crews short on any contract day and it was hoped that this shortfall would be made up by crews working their days off
The company themselves are preaching that the crews have agreed to this arrangement wherein they will work extra days and be rostered on to do so. Some crews may well have agreed to this, but not all, and it certainly isn't the case that everyone is working this arrangement.
They can be put on a "flexi-roster" which basically means that they don't know what they are working on any particular day, and they receive a small extra remuneration for this.
The Scotia work force has just received the second round of their "7% over two years", namely 4.27%. However, since then the pilots themselves have been communicating to BALPA the fact that they are entirely unhappy with the remuneration they are receiving (which rates are on average about 7-10% ahead of BHL), and they want a complete review of their pay and conditions to bring them into line with other essential service professionals in the oil industry and also to align them more accurately with their counterparts in other areas of the aviation industry.
They are currently pursuing this matter through the BALPA company council, who have indicated that it will take approximately six weeks to formulate a proposal to the company.
BHL Discussion
A separate discussion among the BHL aircrew present drew several conclusions. Without stating the obvious, the way ahead for the company is to make it sufficiently attractive to those joining to stay and make a career of it. This will involve substantial increases in remuneration and, through recruitment of sufficient numbers, quality of life.
There is a gagging clause on the discussions between the company and the CC on pay and this is completely unacceptable to the membership. The cc represents us a.t these negotiations and it is beholden upon them to report to us as members what has transacted at the negotiations.
A11 we know so far is that we know nothing, from which we can only infer that no offer has been made!
As an aside, it was pointed out that several company directors have recently traded their options and made substantial amounts of money in so doing (in the vicinity of $500,000).
Enough is enough! It was decided that we need to direct the cc more firmly on the levels of award we are now looking for (more in line with our colleagues), and that we would write to the cc and direct them as our representatives to ensure the company is made abundantly clear about this. Secondly it was decided that a meeting should be set for a date prior to the next meeting of the cc with the company, with a view to determining a strategy for the response to the outcome of these negotiations.
A letter has been formulated and is attached to this notice. Anybody who wants to make the letter personal should send an email to
[email protected] to receive a copy of the text for themselves, otherwise, simply sign the attached letter and it will be passed on to the chairman of the cc very shortly. BALPA cc representatives and volunteers will be approaching you as an individual with a view to obtaining your support for the cc and the negotiating team and pilots are urged to consider the ramifications of the fact that we as yet do not know anything from the cc despite three meetings with the company!