If we stick with the 5/3 it will not be as stable as last year. At last weeks meeting we were told that with the new crewing management in place they will have the resources to crew to the book. ie no wrap around days each end of leave and 5/2 six times per year.
I like the idea of 5/4 but it must be a constant 5/4 and not as variable as proposed. For that I would be prepared to have say 9 days leave allocated in the blocks of 4 but we MUST have the wraparound days so that 5 days leave becomes 13 days off. Otherwise every time you have leave your shift pattern changes.