Hi Classic....I don't post on Crew Forum either...I have read some stuff on there. Perhaps you are thinking of the old Av forum that closed...I used to get onto there?
I do not think that I ever suggested that there isn't a difference between operation as planned and operation when off schedule. Nor did I want to suggest that pilots do not regularly go beyond their agreement to get the job done.
As you pribably know, the cc agreement is that a non long range duty day should be planned up to 12.5 hours, but if delayed we extend to 16.30 While the long range trips are planned over 12.5 hours and we can extend to 19.15 duty hours. All those duties were agreed in the negotiations following 9/11....not 1970.
However, the idea seems to be floating around that there should not be a limit, (I guess (hope) from non-flying contributors). Or that the general limitation to the operation is the cabin crew. Yet, in general, the point at which the c crew find their delayed flight cancelled or recrewed is when the pilots hit the legal limit. This has been the only kind of disrupted trip I have experienced in 24 years.
Out of home base we do not habitually work with reduced crew compliments except during periods of disruption...the difference being that if we work one down whenever BA say they are short of crew, then there is, in effect no point having an agreed crew level.
On average 200 cc leave every year...what is the incentive for BA to replace that wastage if there is no operational imperative for them to? I appreciate that the pilots do not ever face the same issue, because BA cannot legally cut the flight crew compliments, and that it may seem out of date to say that we will not fly from base with less than the agreed levels. But, where do we draw the line?
As far as your comment on fixed-links for EF goes...I'll have to ask you to explain what one is...the whole EF agreement was created about 10+ years ago and I left Shorthaul (its predecessor) about 20 years ago.
Charlie Pop, am I right in thinking that your sickness calculation is based on a working year of 365 days? As opposed to a normal working year which would not include an employees annual leave or days off? Isn't the norm for uk industry to calculate such things based on about 260 days? That would mean the average sickness rate is 9.86 days.