Collective action looming? We’re cocked and loaded.
Attention Emirates Pilots.
A few points need to be made crystal clear so that there is no misunderstanding between us. If you manage to read the entire post you will be left in no doubt as to our intentions towards you; the gradient that exists between you and us, your executive management and superiors (you could water ski on the gradient that exists in a typical Korean Airlines Cockpit for comparative purposes) and you all should be left with a nauseous, hollow and sinking feeling in the pit of your stomachs. Savour it, it’s as good as you’ll ever feel for as long as you are here.
For simplicity, directness, clarity and brevity, the remainder of this post shall take the form of headings and bullet points. Read it, digest it, accept it, and then go to work. Profits above all else.
Houston Flight/Layover- You think you have won a small victory with your 48 hour layovers. The absolute minimum industry standard is 72 hours, so we are still ahead. Don’t take your eyes off the ball. It cannot be impressed enough upon you how furious we are at having had to extend the layover to 48 hours. Even we sometimes find that the threat from first world regulatory authorities and lawyers put a spanner in our works. Don’t expect these layovers to last. Over the coming months we will publish a raft of colorful documents proving how it is possible to operate this, and other, longer flights, with a 24 hour layover. That, coupled with another rubber stamp or two from our compliant regulatory authority will satisfy our lawyers that there will be no comeback on us in the event of a fatigue related accident.
- Your crew rest will remain the same; appalling. First and Business class seats will remain unavailable to you. This will be promulgated shortly, and in due course will be entered into the FOM. We would like to extend a thank you to the several pilots who have written in asking if Economy seats are available. This has made our job much easier, since this request has come from you. This will be made official policy in due course, thus putting an end to the First/Business class seat annoyance. How we laugh at the thought of a 60 year old senior captain jammed into seat 52F. Between an incontinent octogenarian and a bile vomiting infant. You are a source of endless amusement for us.
Holidays- We love this one. Your leave bids were recently completed, and leave allocation published. You would have received the email from one of our more junior managers crowing that all pilots were awarded the target of 30 days leave. We sit in stunned silence at the lack of response from you as a group. Are you not aware that your contractual entitlement is 42 days? We do what we want, when we want, how we want. Did you know you don’t actually have holidays anymore? How can this be you ask? See below. It’s laid out as plainly as can be.
- No holidays. That is correct. You no longer have any holidays of any sort. By restricting your leave allocation to a maximum of 14 day blocks, we are still able to get nearly 80 hours flying out of you in the remaining two weeks of the month. You have really only been on days off. No penalty to us. Almost all of you have been awarded two blocks of 12 to 14 days ‘leave’. Plus one short block of a totally unusable four days. That’s not leave either. That’s just days off, merely pre-planned. We are now just giving you the opportunity to bid ahead for a block of two weeks of days off, not leave. Why do you think all that time ago credit accrual was stopped whilst on leave? Now you see.
- Good, some of you say. When I resign or retire, I will be owed weeks and weeks of leave, to be paid out at the current salary level. Nice little earner. Wrong. You have never been cheaper, in relative terms, to employ than you are now. And you are getting cheaper by the year. When you finally leave us, the money we will have to pay you will be worth far less in relative terms than it is now. You lose, we’ve had the use of your money for all those years.
- You will now be forced to have two or three ‘leave’ periods per year. But only one Annual Leave Ticket. Forcing you to buy tickets home for the other remaining ‘leave’ blocks. We love making money directly from our staff.
Basing- Short answer only needed. Not a chance. Do you think we are going to expose ourselves to representation and the laws, courts and media of first world countries? It’s got nothing to do with keeping money ‘in house’. You just don’t figure in those stakes. Perhaps you need to re-read the above and our first three postings.
Days Off- You will be restricted to six days off in a row, maximum. That includes the abuttal period of any two months. You will not be able to get 12 days off that way. A flight will be inserted. It is much more efficient for us to do this to you. Your manually inserted days in your strings of days off can also be considered as stop gap reserve days, as of course we can change whatever duty has been inserted as we see fit. Also, since you are forced to remain in Dubai, we anticipate a greater positive response if a change to your manually inserted duty goes into one of your days off. You will receive your miniscule payment, and we have just saved a bundle. Some recent smart posters have also suggested that we may swell the ranks of the training department as a result of this yet to be announced policy. 100% correct.
We have noticed from PPRUNE posts and your Airbus and B777 swap group emails that there still remain murmurings of discontent, and even half hearted attempts at rallying and showing a unified front. Be advised we eat razor blades with our breakfast.
Now read the title of the post again. You have been warned.
Thank you. Keep up the hard work. You have no option.
EK Management.