I'mnotanERIC, and viaEGLL
WRT extra hours - it has been identified at TC that there is an increasing incidence of trainees on certain sectors reaching level 5/6 then getting chopped (nothing to do with more 'special flights' viaEGLL, that is one factor amongst many - see below). The extra hours have been added at these stages on these sectors to see if it will help. It is probably a stop gap solution for the moment - The UTP has not kept up with the increase in traffic/complexity at TC (or I dare say any other unit) and needs revising.
The extra hours you mention are just one 'solution'. There has also been a lot of meetings/memos regarding tightening up report writing and differentiating the roles of instructors and assessors - hopefully this will mean that problems are identified earlier in the training process and extra hours (via remedial training) can be allocated at the appropriate time to allow instructors and trainees to iron out things, before progressing to the next level.
Day spinning bonuses(!)
People doing day spins effectively get an extra day off - the sleep day for night people. They receive UHP along with everyone else - quite a healthy payment.
If rostering is done correctly(!), day spins and night duties should be spread around... Yes, in the summer day spinners work their socks off, but in the winter they get a lot of 'early go's(sp)'.
An early go on a night duty is obviously not an option! At TC we have 'long sleeps' you might get one on one of your nights - it's about 5 and a half hours, thats if you can get to sleep on the 'beds' in the stuffy rooms (a problem many people have) - most people end up getting around 2 hours decent sleep a night... this does tend to make you more tired on your days off - certainly affecting the quality of your first couple of days off.
Night duties do not benefit from enhanced relief either, therefore although quieter, you do not get as many breaks etc. On a night duty you are left more to your own devices with less back up than daytime.
If you read what DTY/LAKES writes in your thread, he/she considers the traffic loading to be fairly high.
All in all, it probably balances out - asking for more money for doing your job during the day is just wishful thinking!
edited to reply to viaegll re extra hours - postings crossed