Hi vin just to reply to your question regarding rosters, EI cabin crew agreed to increase their flight hours last year under the infamous greenfield agreement from 750 to 850 flight hours however we can work up to a total of 1800 hours duty per year, thats the time on the ground at briefing, boarding, deplaning and the security checks in between flights etc.along with this cabin crew agreed to pay freezes and a reduction in flight pay along with some working condition changes allowing more flexible rostering by the company.
However the company recently published a new working conditions hand book which went far beyond what was agreed under greenfield. To cut a long story short the company removed virtually all the cabin crews working conditions to such an extent that they are now level with the minimum standards of EU OPS FTLs ( not a standard any crew member wants to attain)
To give you a few examples cabin crew have lost the right to request weekends off. Flight duty days have increased to 16 hours plus. On top of that you can position after the duty and it does not count as duty time.
Minimum rest on Atlantic flights reduced to 12 hour turnaround from 23
All meals breaks on flights have been cancelled. You can do a tour of duty of up to 27 days with very little notice with only a minimum of 2 days off upon your return. Your duty can be changed by 3 hours when you check in which
means you could arrive for an early morning flight and be told to come back 3 hours later for a longer duty.
I could go on but in a nut shell the cabin crew have been stripped of any chance to have a life, there is no balance just sheer contempt! Many of the crew have children and these new conditions mean that it is impossible for them to maintain a home and work balance.
This is a deliberate attempt by the company to rid itself of career cabin crew, as stated by our caring CX he is only interested in people coming in for 2 years and being worked to death. What a nice guy!!!