Hiya 3kpsi! Good to see you around, you darned foreigner you!
I am very far from being a xenophobe. Being largely non-Brit myself, it would be a tad foolish.
I heard the rumour that Thudd posted a few days before it made it here. It concerned me. It would have concerned me less had it been made clear that only EU citizens were being recruited, even on a temporary basis. There is, at least theoretically, a level playing field across the EU. That Ozzies were apparently being taken on raised my hackles. No, I have nothing against them personally. But were I to go to Oz, I rather doubt I would be eligible for employment there.
This issue has been raised time and time again. All I personally want to see is people playing the game by the rules. If I'm not eligible for a job in this, that or the other country, I don't see why their nationals should be permitted jobs here when there are Brit pilots out of a job.
Furthermore, I expect the Government (who presumably know the rules) to refuse work visas in such cases. If they are in any doubt about the availability of the home-grown product, then they should not necessarily take an airline's word for it, and can always consult BALPA, who didn't seem to know anything about this case until a former colleague of mine pointed it out to them.
That these posts appeared on the Parc website does not excuse offering the jobs abroad. I regularly trawl the various jobs websites, as do many people I know, but it is possible to miss them. Did they appear in, for example, "Flight"? I think not.
If the jobs are only for 6 months, and there are no CRJ-rated pilots available within the EU, then fair enough. Give them 6-month non-renewable visas. Thereafter I would hope that Brit pilots would be employed.
PS snooze, are you a pilot? If so I hope I don't have to fly with you, since (a) you don't appear to be very
au fait with the state of immigration and work laws (b) more importantly, you make incorrect snap judgements on very limited information instead of trying to find out more. Go check your "Human Factors" book.
[ 08 January 2002: Message edited by: HugMonster ]</p>