Originally Posted by
ottergirl
I am not against an hourly rate on shorthaul per se. What concerns me about it is the experience our shorthaul pilots are having at the moment; their allowance rate was set a while back when the Euro was about 1.5 to the pound and it is now par. This means that it is quite expensive for them to eat downroute. If we had an hourly rate I would want it reviewed regularly. Of course, if the UK ever entered the Euro-zone then it would be no problem. The monthly travel payment I do have a problem with as it rewards those who do the least work at the expense of those who do the most. Not the way forward I believe. I can see that it might help even out the work on long-haul and, it might even enable them to have a Carmen style bidding system.
As a cost saving measure, an hourly rate doesn't help BA much. There is a slight saving around NI contributions and admin, thats all.
Ottergirl, you've been believing the Bassa misinformation again about the hourly rate.
Knowing several people on short haul, and as we also have the same system on longhaul,, I can assure you I have never heard one person say a bad word about the hourly rate for pilots despite the fluctuations. I did post some months ago an analysis of the history of the pound/euro, and even with excessive expenditure on food it showed that worst case a pilot might be £20/month worse off with the lowest exchange rates (near parity occurred last year, not this) and about £15/month BETTER off with the higher euro/pound exchange rates.
Someone starting short haul a year ago would now be better off!
My point was that the differences are small beer and there are good periods and worse periods. Swings and roundabouts +/- £20/month max.
You see it's useful to analyse and question received wisdom, even from your peers. I can recommend it
Also, there is a significant saving for BA with the hourly rate. Do you know how many allowance administrators IFCE can save from their budget by switching to hourly rate? Ask them. Part of the saving can be used to introduce the Carmen system which will share the work out equally, and with a transparent process showing who's got what trips (like our system), you'll see that people get a fair share of the work and thus the fair share of the monthly rate.
I really don't see how you can talk this system down when it works with such obvious success amongst your pilot colleagues.
We're not saying these things because we're management stooges, it's because they work. I would never want us to go back to your system. This system works too well. Honestly.