Well there is not a lot anyone can do about the bitching, it happens in every airline and its just a fact of life im afraid.
I agree, we are abused and treated like slaves compared with other airlines within the group. However, we all knew when we started with Eastern that we could be worked to 152 Hours it was in our letter of offer.
Furthermore its disgusting that we have to work our days off just to put food in our mouths and even if you wanted a lazy day laying around you receive constant sms messages and phone calls from crewing this is now bordering on harassement, as defined in the Eastern Standards of Conduct Book.
300 Flying is CASA approved and Sunstate has had this approval for quite some time. We should think ourselves lucky as Sunstate crew can be rostered 300 flying alone under their CASA approval whereas this is not the case with Eastern yet. The FAAA can do little about this issue apart from work with CASA and the company to find a solution.
Dispensations are not granted left, right and centre. Maybe they were some months ago but I am sure this is not the case now especially after the 15 or so point notice issued the crewing by the cabin crew manager in regard to better utilisation of crew to reduce the cost of calling in crew on days off. If at any time a dispensation has been granted you or any crew member effected should be given the name of the FAAA rep who approved it and you have the right to call that person to confirm the dispensation has been granted. Dispensations were one of the points to be covered before calling day off crew so I highly doubt dispensations are being granted at present with the high volume of day off crew working. Of course the FAAA keep a record of dispensation along with drafting levels and when crew advise the level of solo 300 flying, what they can do or achieve with this information is a question which can only be answered by the FAAA.
True before NG came along these things were not happening, however her role is not to boost morale. Her role like every manager within the Qantas group is to increase productivity, reduce cost, meet KPI's and the list goes on. The morale is at an all time low and I agree LT was a great people manager and the best Eastern has ever had in my day anyway.
Things are not going to get any better and by the time the EBA comes rolling around things should start to get very interesting for our management team.