B scaler
It will be a longer time to command regardless of any aviation industry cyclicality! Command time is likely to be 13-20 years - 13 years if the recent high growth rate is maintained, 20 years if the growth rate of the 90s is applicable.
As there are no AOA updates forthcoming I thought I might write some stuff for general consumption. Please bear in mind these are my thoughts and my thoughts alone...they do not represent GC opinion.
Some history
B scales were introduced on 1st April 1993 at a level 39% below the prevailing A scales. Management thinking of the time was that A scales had risen too far and that a more market driven salary was needed. You would logically assume, therefore, that A scales would have remained static whilst B scales enjoyed inflationary payrises until the scales merged!
After the decision to introduce B scales, however, A scales enjoyed payrises in 1993-1996 totaling in excess of 24%. In this same time period, B scales received pay rises in excess of 28%. For a 1st year FO from 1993-1996, the A scale increased by over $15,000 whilst the B scale rate increased by just under $12,000. So whilst A scales increased at almost the same percentage rate, they obviously increased more in nominal terms.
The Company made the decision to do away with the collective contract in place at that time, leave current serving Officers on their current pay and CoS, and offer inferior pay and CoS to New Joiners only. It is important to note that just over a year later COSAP 94 was imposed on A-Scalers, in which the six weeks leave of the B-Scale CoS was incorporated.
The lesson seems to be that to accept the situation where lesser pay and CoS are offered to New Joiners only, thinking that ‘I’m alright Jack’, is to invite the same upon ourselves eventually. It is also to invite inevitable future industrial discord amongst our future colleagues. As with 1993, the introduction of an inferior CoS for new joiners has a payrise attached for current employees!
Where we are today
The HKG B scale, as of 1/1/08, will be on par (in nominal terms) with A scale salaries of 1992. From Jan 08, the HKG B scale would need a 28 % pay rise to catch up to where A scales were 12 years ago. For A scalers it would take payrises of between 7 and 29%, dependant on base, to return to previous pay scales. The pay gap between the most senior B scaler and his one month senior A scale peer is over 22% - that is for HKG based with both on the new PF. If you take into account the old PF for the A scaler, the disparity is far greater. So after 14 years and 9 months the pay disparity has been reduced from 39% to 22%!
Joiners on the C(UFO) scale will be on terms approximately 20-30% (base dependent) lower than their peers who joined by the end of this year. The last time the company employed a ‘same work, different pay’ paradigm was 1993. It seems the saying ‘history doesn’t repeat, but it plays a familiar tune’ is apt here. A new joiner on CoS08 will be on the same nominal salary as a B scale FO1 in 1995, in the case of an Australian basing.
The moniker “C scale” seems aptly applied to UFO scales!
Latest pay imposition
According to GMA’s figures (in his update of 8 Oct), HKG based B scale CNs will receive payrises of between 5.0 and 8.3%. Let’s look at that. According to figures reported by DFO, the average number of hours flown (in 2006) was around 680. Add in 84 credit leave hours and another 20hrs for simulators and ground school and you end up with around 780hrs. This equates to around 65 credit hours per month. Add another 5 hrs for factoring etc and the average HDP payrise is around 0.6% on 2007 figures.
The most senior B scaler is around SCN4. This rank has ‘enjoyed’ a grade increase of 1% (5*0.2%). This B scaler will enjoy a payrise of around 4.6% whilst a brand new B scale Captain will receive a payrise of around 3.6%. This is much lower than the quoted range of 5.0-8.3%. It will be another 12 years, when the most senior B scaler reaches SCN 17, before any B scale CN gets the payrise at the upper end quoted by GMA.
CX needs DEFOs
The Company requires a huge number of DEFOs from the US and Australia and is hoping to pay freighter pay to secure them. These officers will be earning around 30% less than their based B-Scale peers and at salaries pitched to levels not seen for over a decade. Cathay Pacific’s actions of the past have shown that once a new scale is introduced the previous pay scale enjoys pay rises that continue for the first few years and then cease. Then when there is any economic crisis, the lower paid scales justify a pay cut to the incumbent scales, as happened in 1999.