Privacy v Secrecy
If privacy is the concern then there is no need to publish personally identifying information. They could publish a de-identified list saying Person A is bidding against X hours pay protection, Person B is a Reserve Line Holder etc etc in their ranked order and then the winning bidder has a tick against them at the close of that day's open time allocation. When any discretion is involved in the decision a reason must also be published. All open and above board. No-one identified except for publication of the winner on the crew list. Crew members must already opt in to have their names published on crew lists anyway, why couldn't this be done for open time bidding?
At the moment it's like a card game where everyone knows the value of their own hand, the dealer (ops) collects all the cards and then announces who has the highest hand without anyone else getting to see them all. You can ask the dealer why you didn't win and all they'll say is 'someone else had a better hand.' You still can't actually see their cards, you just have the dealer's word for it.
If you're not satisfied you can call the union who will call the dealer's supervisor and ask them to check. The dealer knows how infrequently they get checked and knows that it is extremely unlikely anyone will ever find out if they give it to the wrong player. The union can't be told the players' details either because the union is not exempt from privacy laws.
Some players say they've seen others give gifts to the dealers or the dealers are friends/relations of other players.
Who would ever willingly place a bet at this casino?
obira