Good post VR. But let's take a breath and remember a few facts. This airline has not lost any money, yet:
1) No bonus this year
2) No longevity pay raise
3) No pay raise in general
4) Overtime pay taken away (unless you fly over 93 hours)
5) As augmenting crew, you are not credited for rest time (paid, yes)
6) Full utilities taken away. Only partially paid now.
7) No more than 4 days off in a row, later changed to no more than 7.
8) As of today, 98 FCIs (flight crew instructions) issued this year. Temporary changes to something,for those not knowing.
9) More online training to be accomplished throughout the year-no pay
10) No allowence to opt out of company accomodations, unless buying
11) All rosters seem to be in the 90 hour range.
12) Numbers of pilots fired or downgraded for non safety related issues.
13) First Officer upgrade now 3000 hours of EK time.
14) A330 Senior First Officers mandated to F/O A380. No chance to upgrade for ANOTHER three years. Then back to the 330.
15) Open time availability taken away to be able to trade or request.
16) ADs (available days) added to rosters.
17) All ULR pilots lose a day off due to SBUs, standby the day before leaving on a ULR trip.
18) Temporary accomodations for up to a year and a half to all new joiners, even with families. This was finally rectified, after 1.5 years.
19) Mandated meetings with management on days off-no pay or credit
I am sure I have made a few mistakes and would love to be corrected if the above is incorrect. I am sure there may be a few I have forgotten. This has all taken place in one year from airline that has not lost one small dirham. Many of these may seem minor and trivial, but it shows what has taken place over the past year. My goodness, what would happen if we actually lost money?
My point in all this, for those that are comtemplating coming here, and you have a reasonable job, just remember again, these degradations of the terms and conditions of our employment have been from an airline that continues and has made profits. And notice I have not even addressed the overall living conditions here that one experiences daily. And that includes the "rights" one has as one of the ninety percent expat population.
Last edited by IXNAT; 27th Dec 2009 at 19:50.