Whitti
just to be clear, after the 8 months the plan is that you would NOT be kept on in continuous employment. What I said was that if you are good then the following year the chances would be better as you are a nown quantity and of course that is dependent on a requirement for recruitment the following year. On a brighter note, things change all the time in aviation as the current crop of CTC cadets have found. They are now well placed to throw there hat in the ring. I would not discount the possibility of you joining us on a fixed 8 month cadet deal only to find that half way through we suddenly have a need now, all I'm saying is that it is possible but by no means certain.
As for the initiative, we were locked in discussions with the company on a raft of issues all around reducing costs part of which was a salar scale for new joiners. As a Company Council we sat down to consider or Mission Statement (Ugh, Corporate
!) but it gave us a good steer on where we wanted to go. One item was for TOM to be "A career airline of choice".
From that one of our number had a Road to Damascus moment and after about 5 minutes we realised we could make it cost neutral to the company, breal the strangle hold of some organisations where despite selection processes, ability to pay was still a factor and not healthy for the industry and finally, put just a bit more cash into a cadet's pocket and have a structured career path for a cadet entry. Win - win -win.
We presented it to the company and they agreed - Why wouldn't they? So BALPA idea, open minded company (at least on that bit!!!!).
There has been quite a bit of interest from Big BALPA on a number of things we have done so you never know, the concept might spread.
APOLOGY
In an earlier post I alluded to Baby pilots being only Classic. What I SHOULD have done is ready the bloody criteria better because of course it includes 300-900! I sincerely apologise if my post came across as dismissive of non NG rated guys.