The situation at TOM regarding these temporary contracts is as described. The cadet programme in place delivers a far better package to the cadets than is available anywhere else with full duty pay, pension contributions,and operating to the Memorandum of Agreement with access to Flexible Working (paid working on days off) etc. The idea is then that these pilots are able to be absorbed into the Company on permanent contracts, and this is what has happened with the CTC cadets taken on at the beginning of summer 12, hence the reduced external requirement for 18 permanent posts rather than the 30 or so originally suggested.
The Company Council have agreed (reluctantly) to the temporary contracts for next summer for the reasons already given, but the Company are in no doubt as to the response should they try to repeat this in the future.
The following is from the latest BALPA Company Council newsletter to members on this subject. The Dave Lawrence referred to is the head of Pilot Management at TOM.
"As you are aware the CC have been discussing the crewing of LBA for summer 2013 at some length. The Company position for LBA is that the pilots are only needed for summer 2013 at present; they have no certainty that they will be required for summer 2014. For that reason the Company do not want to employ on permanent contracts.
The CC has essentially been faced with a dilemma. We are not in favour of any 'fixed term' employment contracts. We are however convinced that the work in LBA should be carried out by us as opposed to Sunwing or another third party carrier because we can see a future for LBA as a base for Thomson pilots. We think this because the commercial department tell us that the LBA work for summer 2013 is already selling well.
We do not agree with short term fixed employment for new pilots because it does not fit in with our vision of Thomson Airways as an airline of choice that treats its pilots with dignity and respect, with permanent jobs. We will continue saying this to the Company......
Dave Lawrence has replied with the assurances below; "I would like to emphasise that the introduction of fixed term employment pilots for S13 is to facilitate the LBA flying only and is not driven by any other reason. There will be no more than 10 fixed term employment pilots, the minimum number required to cover the LBA flying. They will all be First Officers, will be directly employed by Thomson Airways and will have the same MoA and salary entitlements as other pilots. Our preferred option for crewing LBA this summer (or other similar requirements in future) was to use TACPS pilots, but as you recognise in your email, this has not been possible due to the training programme this winter. To this end, to avoid this issue in future, we will have a TACPS in place in time to supply pilots to the Summer 14 flying programme. ""
(TACP = Thomson Airways Cadet Pilot)
Hope this helps to provide some factual basis for the discussion here. I know that the preferred route of cadet entry pilots is not good news for experienced people from other backgrounds seeking a change. All I would say is that I was recruited by BA 38 years ago as a cadet entry pilot (Got made redundant before the end of the course and never actually joined BA....some things never change!) so this is not a new system of recruitment. Having said that it would be great to have a mixture of pilots entering Thomson, and all would be welcome.
Last edited by Matey; 17th Dec 2012 at 08:25.