MinimaNoContact
MinimaNoContact, and anyone else that is interested...
The Company will be paying New Joiners from January 2008 onwards, a unified pay scale under CoS08 that works like this:
The Company contends that the 'historical' recruiting streams have been as an SO or as a direct-entry Freighter FO. But they want to hire direct-entry Passenger FOs that are currently paid a higher salary. Naturally they don't want to have to pay for something they could possibly get away with not paying for...
So the cunning plan they have come up with is that they have produced an amalgamation, of sorts, of the SO and Freighter FO salaries, and applied this salary scale to all direct-entry FOs joining after January 2008!!
All direct-entry FOs joining the Company in future will be obligated to fly both the Freighter and Passenger aircraft in Cathay's inventory - something that is not necessarily the case today. (At present, freighter pilots fly freighter aircraft and passenger pilots fly passenger aircraft. Passenger pilots can be asked to fly freighter patterns but not forced to).
The rationale here is that the Company asserts that new joining pilots would naturally like to fly Passenger aircraft, and tossing the Freighter into the mix would allow for a greater variety of flying for the lucky individual.
However, the New Joiner will be flying both Freighter and Passenger aircraft for less than what aircrew with an identical rank flying Passenger aircraft are paid today. A minor and irrelevant point, the Company would say...
New Joiners have joined the Company as direct-entry Passenger pilots in the past - there is a historical precedent for this, but it is one which the Company and the AOA appear to be ignoring.
I contend that if the Company want Passenger fleet aircrew, (under the system that they themselves set up many years ago when they split the Freighter from the Passenger fleet to save them money), then they should pay Passenger fleet pay. If the Company wish to once again amalgamate the Passenger and Freighter fleets, then they should do so at the highest common denominator, not the least.
Simple.
The Company obviously see differently, (they don't want to pay more than they absolutely have to for their labour), and for some unknown reason, the AOA leadership, completely neglecting to represent their future colleagues on this issue, have acquiesced to this arrangement.
As for specific comparisons between pay scales, perhaps Numero Crunchero could do what he does best...
Last edited by BScaler; 12th Dec 2007 at 06:24.
Reason: clarity