1) At the roadshow they said that with the 42 days of leave that you get per year that you are only 'definatly' going to get 30 days. I currently work a 5 on 3 off roster and as such if I take 5 days leave I am actualy off for 11 days, how does it work with EK?
2) If you don't get you full leave allocation it is rolled over to the next year we were told. As far as I can see with the expansion if your not able to get it one year then how are you likely to get more the next? If your not able to take the days can you opt to have them bought off of you?
3) How do they allocate leave? A day here a day there or in blocks?
4) Could someone explain the factoring of hours at EK to me please. I presently fly 850-900 a year.
5) We were told the accommodation was more than likely going to be at Silicon Oasis. Is that true and if not what is the other company accommodation like villa wise? (Im married with kids)
1) you submit a primary leave bid. This year the bid was between 15 Nov and 31 Dec/06 for the following FY's leave (01 Apr 07-31 Mar 08). You are allowed to submit 3 choices for "peak" periods and 3 choices for "non-peak" periods (peak = summer/Christmas/easter or school spring break). The block of days must be 14-21 days, no more and no less will be allowed. No bid allowed if you will be rostered for reserve in that month (reserve is a full month, rotates through a 10 month cycle).
They will try to allocate 1 prime slot based upon your previous history:
a) top awards go to those with no previous prime leave the previous year(s),
b) next to those who had peak but in a different period (eg. got summer, may get Christmas if you bid for it),
c) last to those who had peak and want it again (summer/summer).
Your choice of dates will be moved +-4 days (for 1st choice) and +-7 days for 2nd/3rd choice as they see fit.
If you don't get any prime leave and don't get any of your "non-peak" requests, you will be allowed to bid for a final round of the leftover scraps of days (min 4 day block, max 14 day block).
2) yes, leave is rolled over to the next year. No, you don't have the option of having them buy them off of you. They have the option of assigning leave to you at will (should there be a low flying month) or they reserve the option to buy them off of you if they desire.
3) as above, min 4 day blocks, 14-21 day blocks in prime time, 4-14 day blocks for other time.
4) 100% credit for flight hours in the seat. In "heavy" ops, they will only give you credit for time in the seat (14 hour flight; you are relief crew you will only get approx 6:15 credit instead of the 14 hours you were actually flying). Therefore, it is very possible to fly well beyond 100 hours in a month/900 hour in a year if you are doing a lot of long haul flying.
5) Silicon for the majority of new hires. Nice development, currently a fair distance out of town from schools, shopping, recreation, etc (there is a small mini-mart in the complex). Generally most do not have a problem with their villa accom no matter where they are......the odd break-in and typical maintenance issues due to crappy fit and finish in DXB but generally good standard.