Good questions guys and a lot of thought has gone into this one.
Our proposal was that we get the additional point every year in lieu of training payments and it goes on forever not just the life of the EA.
That being said, most courses are worth 4 points (I know about the 330 and 380 but just park them for this exercise). If you do a course every 4 years on average, you will get 4 points each 4 year period, obviously 1 per year. Under our proposal you would just get these points automatically.
This system clearly will not benefit the queue jumpers who expect to be able to trump all others with a course every second year. Those LAMEs are few and far between anyway (the ones who succeed that is).
Qantas have advised us that the average time between courses for the average LAME is 6 years. If you are getting paid regardless of whether you train or not, it should encourage the company to undertake more training because they are paying for it anyway.
In the past it has not been uncommon for LAMEs nearing retirement age to get themselves on training to bump up the final salary. They would not need to now and the training will be more likely to go to those with many years left.
The non type payment also whacks a huge chunk off the calculations for other operator work with it becoming more attractive to in source work.
The are many transitional issues that I can't explain briefly here such as integration of B1 and B2 payments and dealing with the 380. Our first job has been trying to sell them on the concept as it has benefits for all involved.
cheers
Steve