I once again find it astonishing that when an individual speaks out opinions that aren’t shared by the majority on this forum the answer from most of you is angry and irrational responses.
As you put it yourself you are highly educated and intelligent people. Then you should also be able to discuss your disagreements in an educated and intelligent way.
Irrational responses? On the contrary, I think that any open minded person reading this will see that the responses to your posts have been for the most part rational and substantive. I think that they will also see that when asked to respond to particular issues, you are selective and incomplete.
I do understand that the utilities cap is inconvenient for those few of you who have a consumption that is above the new limit. This does however not mean that it is a breach of your contract. Your contract states that "The Company will pay rent, tax, all relevant cooking gas, electricity and water charges". From a legal point of view relevant refers to normal consumption in the accommodation you are placed, and excessive luxury use is not covered by the contract. With the new cap EK has only formalized what was in the contract all the time, that only relevant consumption is covered. This view is shared by UAE lawyers and as a result not a contract breach.
If you check your dictionary, relevant does not equate to normal and for your information, the contract does not say either. It says that the company will meet the cost of utilities. I have no doubt that the company would prevail in a UAE court of law. One only has to look down the road to see a very well publicized example of how the law is not applied evenly here.
Most of you were hired to EK when the world economy was booming, and Dubai was one of the hotspots on the globe. While Dubai's future still looks bright, there is no doubt in the fact that Dubai has severe challenges that needs to be overcome. It’s of course unfortunate that some employees feel that they haven't got everything they thought they would when signing up for the company. EK try its best to live up to everyone’s high expectations, but in the business climate that has existed the last years that has been and still is difficult at times. As you have stated yourself these complaints is not a breach of contract, and therefore not something that you can hold EK accountable.
As I am expected to live up to my word and as my reputation relies on it, so does Emirates reputation lie on them living up to their word. I don't think that anyone here will deny that things have changed in the airline world but the way the company went about instituting their changes leaves a lot to be desired. We were not told that the changes were due to the need for everyone to pitch in and help out. That might have been mistaken for leadership. We were told that we were all flying long haul (not true) and that a 20% increase in the overtime threshold was "reasonable". What it was was a 15% paycut for most pilots, something that we were told the rest of the company did not have.
As stated earlier EK understands that it needs to recruit more staff to create more flexibility and ensure further growth, and is as a result of this currently hiring new pilots, cabin crew and so on. EKs management is aware of that the current backup is thin and is taking measures to improve. It is every EK employee’s job and duty to do our best effort to ensure that the A/C is on route. EK is in the business of moving people, and if we cannot do that in a good and flawless manner we will no longer have a business to work at, much less talk negative about in internet forums. Your poor attitude and apparent unwillingness to help the company through a difficult time will not make things better.
EK is only recruiting staff to maintain the current work levels and hence the fatigue levels for expansion. We have been told that average block hours per month and overtime thresholds will remain. I think that you would find that this is a very professional pilot group and that the failings of the operation are due to the failures of the management and their policies rather than of the pilots at the coal face. The upper management of EK flight ops have never flown here and in some cases have never flown in this type of operation. They have very little idea of what our operation and its inherent difficulties actually entail. You have admonished us for not taking our issues to management. That is exactly what this is all about. We have and they do not, nor do they care to listen.
EK is in their recruitment work not trying to oversell what we can offer, and wants to create a realistic image of how life at EK will be. Every day EK receives new highly qualified applications for different positions from all over the world which shows that what EK can offer is good enough and competitive enough to attract the new staff required to overcome current challenges and ensure further growth. EK is not heaven, but it’s certainly not hell either, and I think it’s sad that so many of you have such lack of respect for your own company and colleagues that you want to drag it into the mud through this forum.
I would much rather deal directly with a company that was interested in what I had to say but alas, that is not the case. You reap what you sow. Now I have responded to each and every one of your points. I would like you to address a few of the points made here that so far you have remained silent on:
1. How can the company justify the current levels of fatigue when there is so much evidence that the pilots themselves are finding them unworkable? What do you have to say to the families that are shouldering a lot of the burden of those fatigue levels?
2. What about the pilot who was fired while under training? An open and just safety culture?
3. What do you have to say to those pilots and their families who were stuffed into 2 bedroom apartments for over 2 years? What do you have to say to the pilots considering joining here who do not want to subject their families to the same?