Futureflier I'd say the assessment centres will keep on coming thick and fast because they intend to have an extra 800 cabin crew here at Jetstar by the end of the year (2008). I'm in the third week of ground school for domestic Melbourne dual base and we've been told that another ground school will be starting on the 2nd of January, then another will start about a week or two later, and then ANOTHER before the end of January!
And I am pleased to announce that myself and the other 23 new crew in my ground school have voted unanimously to accept a new Collective Agreement that has been negotiated between Team Jetstar and the FAAA.
Yay!
The contract we signed initially wasn't actually an AWA, it was a common law contract - an agreement between the individual and the company, ie. Team JQ. Well the FAAA got involved and had high-level talks with the new Team Jetstar management (Team JQ is a fully-owned subsidiary of Jetstar Airways) and a LOT of our pay and conditions have been improved modestly - but most importantly there are boundaries and assurances in place, or in WRITING, that weren't there under the previous contract. As well as guarantees of pay increases for each year of the 5 year agreement, and a re-negotiation on duty hours and rest periods at midpoint of the agreement (in about 2-3 years). We even had one of the chiefs from the FAAA come in last week to have a frank talk to us about what he thought of our initial offer compared to what he and the union were able to negotiate with Team JQ in the new agreement.
So we're all a lot happier that we've voted in this new agreement which ALL new cabin crew working for Jetstar will be signed under. And incase you hadn't already assumed; all future recruits to Jetstar cabin crew will indeed be employed under Team Jetstar.
Having said that, myself and the others in my ground school are a bit excited in that as an upside to our longer planned duty hours and maximum extendable duty hours we will now be considered for occasional international sectors on the A330 or the new regional international sectors on the A321. We're still domestic crew and will primarily fly domestic sectors for most of our roster periods though.
My ground school is only being trained on the A320 and we'll come back to do a 4 day conversion course for the A321 and A330 some time in the following few weeks once we're checked to line. However, the next ground school starting early Jan will have all 3 types included in their training.
I personally think it's quite exciting.
It's the way the company is headed and you've just gotta go with it or be left behind I say - me and my friends at ground school are looking forward to the massive expansion that Jetstar will be undergoing in 2008.