Originally Posted by Banzai Eagle
I can understand your reasonings Pilot Pete but surely the Company should only be calling the crews on days off in dire times of need, not every week.
Very true BE. What you have to remember is that the company have been expanding for the last 18 months and the Crew Training Unit have been unable to train the required numbers in the required timescales leading to the crew shortages you allude to. Management aren't happy at the amount of money being paid out in Flexi Working, but the incentive is for them to sort out their end of the business and get the right numbers of crews available at the right times and the problem would be solved. They can't deny that the alternative (sub-chartering all those flights) would be a massive expenditure.
Add to this the expansion has been on the 737 fleet, using old equipment and the day to day firefighting you also allude to has been happening more than would be desirable.
So everyone is aware of the crew shortages and there is no need for BALPA to frown on guys helping the company out and making money as they do so, it was a BALPA driven initiative which is mutually beneficial. BALPA is not there to screw companies into recruiting more pilots than it needs and is not there to act as a charity for unemployed pilots.
If the company gets it's sums right and delivers qualified pilots on timescale with hull arrivals into service then the problem is sorted and their costs for Flexi Working go down. If they decide that Flexi Working is a cheaper method than recruiting more pilots then that is their right. What you have to remember is that nobody is contractually obligated to do ANY Flexible Wroking and many pilots choose to do none, hence the company can't rely on it as a long-term plan to lower establishment figures significantly. Each pilot still has to have the legal minimum days of of 8 per month (or is it 28 days, can't remember), so as part of the Flexi deal each pilot was given more days off than the minimum so that the system would work.
There are still disruptions that mean a guy who has worked lots of flexi has to be taken off rostered duties to stay legal, so again the incentive is for them to do the sums right or else everyine would be working their roster in reverse and gaining huge amounts of extra money!!
PP