Well I got my redundancy notice in from Aer Lingus this morning.
Somebody said above that we are overcrewed. Well I regularly work 6 days in a row as do many of my collegues and I would venture to suggest that the crewing numbers were scribbled down on the back of a fag packet by a lazy management pilot.
They have decided to get rid of the cheapest pilots in the company (if not the Western world!) rather than offer all pilots the same terms as every other worker in the company. This is quite apart from the fact that some managers are getting gratuities of 200,000 euros when they leave for a job well done (sarcasm alert).
The cost of the investment already made in our training (78 pilots and the 44 cadets already let go) runs somewhere in the region of 20m Euros. Doesn't exactly make commercial sense to let 78 pilots from the bottom go to save the company a mere £2.6m. Moreover the pilot group has already saved the company £6m by not accepting the pay award that we were due.
The redundancy letter referes to the SCOPE agreement (how nice of them to acknoledge it exists). Quite apart from the discrimination isssues mentioned above in other posts, the SCOPE agreement like all other agreements has been interpreted out of existence.
The section on redundancy may be of interest,
C. Redundancy
No pilot on the seniority list will suffer involuntary redundancy or involuntary lay off prior
to the following:
1. Consultation, with a view to seeking agreement, with the Association.
2. The termination of all wet leasing
3. The voluntary or involuntary redundancy of all other pilots employed or contracted
by the Company, except as per part D, section 1.
4. The termination of all code share operations in the Company’s entire operation into
and out of the Republic of Ireland.
With the above conditions satisfied, the Company will select pilots from the seniority list for
involuntary redundancy and it will be on a ‘last in first out’ basis. Date of entry onto the
Seniority list will be the criteria used in the selection.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The company has conveniently ignored ALL four conditions and has gone straight for LIFO redundancy selection.
There will be a motion to ballot for industrial action next Wednesday.
The pilots are in no way responsible for the predicament which we find ourselves in, be under no illusion of that.
Hopefully the company will come to its senses
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