I believe there are some serious misunderstanding of the fallback mechanism and the impact on the crew. Unfortunately the way the motions are structured a positive vote of 66% is required and last time although a majority voted in favour (56%) the rules meant the motion failed due mainly to 250 members not placing enough importance on the issue to take the time to vote. It is stretching the truth a little when it is claimed we rejected RP04/07last time, however the motion did not pass that is true.
If this happens again the INTERIM FALLBACK becomes RP01….a system imposed by the company and a system they are very content with. This would most likely trigger a court case on rostering and several outcomes are possible. A total victory would probably mean we would get RP94 as the default system, again another company imposed system that the HKAOA has been trying to dismantle since its inception. A loss would mean the company will use the FTL document as its basis for rostering in around 4 years from now.
The so called 700 hour system (RP94) is very agricultural and for example a North American pilot based in JFK or YTO in fact has to add 425 “funny credit” hours to his total as well as 2 hours per ULR sector and that averages about 30 sectors taking his productive hours to 760 and grand total to about 1185 per year, some 112 hours per month average before overtime. A HKG based ULR pilot has 760+93 resulting in around 80 hours per month.
Whilst productive hour overtime is voluntary it is based on an annual and quarterly basis and rarely was achieved, yet some months you could be rostered 110 total hours. The “funny credit hours” is not voluntary and it included DT/BT, simulator, and unlimited days of reserve up to 12 hours at a time. The overtime rate for these funny credit hours is a massive $300 HKD per hour!, for Captains and less for FO and SO’s.
Because the company attempts to avoid overtime the net result is a very uneven distribution of workload between crew with some crew on 30 hours and others on 100 plus per month scheduled. The live rosters were manipulated to keep overtime to a minimum resulting in massive roster disruption.
RP07 certainly has its weak points and my blood boils when is see comments from the company about “so called WORK STACKING”…….with the credit at 2 hours per day for leave it is simple….they work stack in months of leave and it is just simply not fair. Reserve needs work, however some control is possible over your schedule and lifestyle.
Whilst grossly annoyed at the contempt they show for their employees (the mind boggles at how they deal with suppliers, customers, Govt’s and aircraft suppliers), however on balance we must decide if we want the interim fallback and permanent results that a rejection takes us to. We must know exactly what 700 hours means…it certainly does not mean 700 hours…if you know what I mean! The vote is on rostering and not about pay, don’t cut off your nose on this issue.
Rejection pretty well puts rostering in the hands of the company with lifestyle provisions at their discretion, unlimited reserve and O days, no Joker days and the list goes on. if you are not members then become members and have a say, and if you are a member I hope you are not one of the 250 who failed to vote last time and allowed the minority to win by default.