S Stuffer: Wash your mouth out with soap! When you challege the sacred cow of seniority, you invite all sorts of accusations from being a 'queue jumper' to $c@b. Have you not heard,that those who use some common sense approach to promotion are howled down as being down there with the kiddy fiddlers?
I actually read the same article some time ago and element of it were reasonable and logical. as you say, there are practical difficulties with an "industry seniority" number. Ansett post '89 had an "Experience Number for Promotion" which used a similar approach to generation of promotional order and ranking. Pilots were required to submit log books to a JP and swear oaths on their hours flown. In one comic example, an individual claimed that his log book was clasified a secret by the US military as he undertook 1000's of hours of spy and covert missions
As someone who is now, through no fault of my own, re-building my aviation career for the 3rd time
, I would suppport such a system. However I think that companies should be able to promote the person with the most merit. THis could mean DEs where no suitable person exists in the organisation for promotion. It would also mean that an experienced and well qualified pilot should get promoted over someone who has scant experience. Having said this, time in the company is one constituant of merit.
The application of datal seniority is full of holes anyway. Witness the number of companies that
say they promote datally, yet find loopholes or massage the system to promote who they want. A proper 'merit' based system would have a promotions committee with representation from the C&T system and unions and even a rank and file nominated observer as well as management. This would ensure fairness ans transparency