Seniority - is it time to get rid of it?
Hi. I would like to ask the members here how they feel about the seniority system within the tech crew ranks. I am cabin crew, and many of us feel that the system basically stinks, having had no movement for close to ten years, while the top 30% have a great life - we suffer with no end in sight. It affects the trips we can go on, the destinations we visit, the days we have (don't have more to the point) at home, whether we can sleep onboard the aircraft in our rest time - seniors always take the better breaks. It affects our fatigue levels, our stress levels, junior fa usually end up doing the galley (back injuries) and the duty free (major stress), bullying can occur, it also affects our pay. It affects our days off, holidays, long service leave, time with partners and kids. Lack of control in the work enviroment has been shown to be a determinent of ill health in the workplace by mulitiple studies. Lack of sleep is known to cause diabetes, depression, stress, and much more. And that is just one small aspect of seniority. Not to mention muscular skeletal injury due to constantly doing the economy galley on a 747. Our union is not very helpful on this issue, telling us that crew want it. Does anyone here reading this know how we go about changing the system based on the significant OHS issues of health involved here, as it is not just a union issue, it is a workcover issue also? It also seems downright discriminatory to me a lot of the time, encouraging bullying at times. Bullying is illegal, but.... Thankyou