Jet X
You seem to be more in the know than I. Perhaps you could find out what type of Seniority number the cadets have now whilst Cadets at Flight Training Adelaide. They do have one!!
The individuals are, I am reliably informed employees of Virgin Australia (Job Title: Cadet Pilot) and have been for some months now (prior to the Skywest Acquisition), they have staff travel privileges, other staff benefits and have a seniority number. Other than the pilot employee group, What other employee groups have seniority??
On what basis has the seniority number been issued? Have they been employed as a member of the pilot group?
The seniority system flows on from, and is a key inclusion of the EBA so it logically follows that it is possible that their appointment may have been made under the current EBA but at a pay scale that was not contemplated by the EBA when it was drafted and agreed upon. Neither has an amendment been signed off since to my information.
Without an official change to the EBA( and importantly cadets are not a feature if the new EBA that has been voted up) it certainly appears by definition that these appointments may have been made in breach of the current EBA.
I would think that the AFAP know more than they are letting on as there is no way VA could introduce these roles into the company in the most public of ways as they have without the AFAP being aware of the arrangements and having already asked the appropriate questions.
On an earlier post it was stated that the Skywest EBA expires at the end of the year. If this is the case then if Cadets are to be paid at a reduced salary compared to FO as has been alluded to earlier on this thread then accommodation of the cadet roles will need to feature in the negotiations. As per my arguments in relation to the Jetstar Cadetship - if the company feels them confident to trust them in the right hand seat of an RPT ATR72 there should be no pay differential between the graduated cadet and a direct entry FO.
This approach will remove the financial advantage of employing Cadets, as it has done at Jetstar.
Soon enough cadetships will return to their original format where these are awarded to a chosen few to supplement experienced crews rather than being an accountancy revenue stream and way of reducing crewing costs.
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The Kelpie
Last edited by The Kelpie; 14th Apr 2013 at 22:10.