.. i am not sure the CC always use their heaviest bat when it comes to pay negotiations ....
it strikes me that MON is still very much in the dark ages when it comes to most things relating to crewing, communications, holidays, lifestyle etc etc. perhaps the "zero cost basis" has been around for much longer than people think ?? examples are :
* rosters which dont have a flight time total for the month
* nearing 90 hours in 28 days and calling up crewing to find out exactly how many hours your on and they cant tell you - you have to call somebody else !
* some feeble "scheduling agreement" where i have to fill in forms and claim "points" each time my duty is changed beyond a few hours to hopefully try and get a day off sometime
* crew not being able to access any information about their up coming flights to see who they flying with nor being able to request duty swaps
... anyway, i digress. coming back to the pay negotiations, my friends at other operators like thomas cook, jet 2, silverjet and XL all take home more than i do, and lets not even consider my friends at virgin and thomsonfly !
i would like to see no further decrease in the current conditions .... lest we end up paying to work !??!?!
i would like to see the introduction of some sort of factored sector pay (at jet2 for an F/O its in the region of GBP7) to reflect the difference between say a PMI and a TCP.
i would like to see a basic salary increase of more than say 2.7% lets remember that for the last 5 or 6 years inflation, but more importantly our "real" cost of living (council tax, heating, petrol etc etc) has far outstripped our meagre "increases", for those years we did get one ! the net effect is that we have probably "lost" GBP 5-10k in real terms over this period. what is going to be done to recoup this ?
i would like to see a new crewing/rostering system implemented with more functionality and one which enables me to have some control over my lifestyle, if other comparable airlines have systems which work why is it MON havent been able to find a system which they think will work ?
i would like to see staff travel improved ... if there are empty seats why can staff not just pay airport taxes and charges ? it would cost the company nothing but would be seen as something tangible ? often it is cheaper for me to book with another airline if i want to go to say spain for a few days ... when i know the MON flights will have 10+ seats available.
.... anyway, call me cynical but i suspect there will end up being some convoluted "agreement" made, hailed as a "victory" by the CC, which will be spread out over a few years, with us having to give up something in return ... all for what - perhaps a basic increase of 4.3% over 2 years ?!?!?
as a pilot i am not looking for a "victory", all i am looking for is a respectable remuneration package which keeps track with real living costs, respect and goodwill from my employer and some choice and flexability when it comes to lifestyle. when i compare myself to other "suitably educated" friends who are accountants, surveyors, architects, lawyers, dentists i realise just how degraded and poor the money and conditions have become and these dont take into account our 6 monthly sim checks, medicals, unsocial reporting hours or the dreaded 18-30 rest periods or the fact that we can lose our livelyhood much easier than any of these other professions.
... why is it that tube and train drivers earn more than most MON F/O's, have better conditions and their companies would never dream of closing a pay negotiations meeting after 5 mins ??? is it because they are prepared to show their frustration with industrial action - if so, perhaps thats a lesson we should learn from ... the only loser in that scenario would be Monarch, and their customers ....
Last edited by orangesky; 16th Apr 2007 at 13:09.