Hope the V guys can negotiate significant improvement in the EBA... with current management, that will be a difficult task.
The good news is that current management only has about 7 weeks left to run. If ever there is going to be a time that an opportunity to improve conditions was going to arrive, it will be in the next 12 months as JB comes to grips with the lack of engagement of current Virgin Group pilots.
If nothing changes, then I would suggest that there may well be a few more positions opening up at V for the returning expats, and aspiring newbies, than is currently anticipated.
Just to clarify recent postings about salary. At present the base pay (excluding super) for 737 and 777 pilots is approx the same (within a couple of K). The significant difference is that the 737 pay is for 71 hours in a roster period, and 777 pay is for 100 hours in a roster period. That is a 41% productivity increase that 777 pilots are providing, which should put 777 pay around 254k if we were comparing apples with apples. Add to this the fact that Ejet drivers get 20% less than 737 drivers because it is a smaller aircraft, and combine it with the fact that to get the workforce to agree to that little gem they promised the pilots that the trippler would be 20% more than a 737, we find that there are some serious pay discrepancies within the Virgin Group.
If you were to combine the productivity with the promised 20%, 777 pilots at V should be on 303k for 100hours per month, if we were comparing apples with apples.......... but we're not.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to work out there will be a retention problem as the world economy ramps up in the coming years, if the disparate pay across the group is not addressed in a reasonable time frame.
Another interesting point is that recent CC promotions have shown that the new CL's are on a base pay that does not include the recent CPI increase that everyone received. Therefore it is plausible, at this stage, that new joiners may well be on a lower salary than current employees, but we will have to wait and see. I will be interested to hear what the recent batch of CRFO's earn.
V
