By way of background, Labour MEPs have long campaigned for higher flight and duty time limitations for pilots and cabin crew. Indeed, as the lead person for Labour on transport issues, I have met on numerous occasions with both pilot and cabin crew unions, including BALPA, to work with them to improve the rules on flight and duty time requirements.
The choice Labour MEPs faced in the vote this week was either to accept the changes on the table, or to reject them in their entirety.
We decided to support the proposed new rules, as we believe that they improve safety across the board, strengthening rest requirements and reducing night time flights. This position is also shared by the cabin crew section of the European Transport Workers Federation, which includes UK unions. After receiving certain assurances from the European Commission, they have now given their full backing to the proposals.
While we understand that BALPA would have liked to have seen further changes included, Labour MEPs could not accept throwing out the whole proposal in favour of a return to the present status quo. It is our belief that progress has been made with the Commission, which enables us to accept their proposal.
It is simply not true that the changes will lead to worse conditions for pilots and cabin crew. Fatigue management regulations are necessarily complex. It is not so simple as to isolate one rule from another. Instead it is about how the different pieces of the puzzle fit in together to offer overall crew protection against fatigue. That is the reason why the UK CAA supports the changes and believes that they are fully in line with the high standards of aviation safety we have here in the UK .
On long haul flights of more than 13 hours Flight Duty Period, the UK will now be required to ensure a minimum of four pilots on board. The present UK rules only allow for three. This is just one of the clear safety improvements.
Labour MEPs are also aware that there has been a lot of concern over the night flight limit. The new rules would set a limit of 11 hours. While that might not be the 10 hours some of the unions were campaigning for, it is better than the current 11h15 limit we have in the UK and certainly much better than anything that exists in the rest of Europe.
There are also claims being made that pilots could be forced to land a plane after being awake for 22 hours. Using the same, in my view, flawed arguments, it is also possible to claim that this is true under the current rules today. The misleading claims rely on theoretical awake time before a duty period begins, rather than the duty period itself, leading to a distorted picture of the reality.
Finally let me be absolutely clear. The new rules are about setting minimum aviation safety rules that the whole of Europe can work to. They are about ensuring an appropriate level of alertness to ensure the safe operation of an aircraft. To protect the health and safety at work of pilots and cabin crews, there is separate EU and national social legislation and, where they also exist, collective agreements between airlines and crew. The changes here do not jeopardise more protective collective agreements for the simple reason that the most protective rule always applies. What they clearly do provide, though, is added protection to aircrew, where no such collective agreements between themselves and the airlines they work for exist.
I hope that this helps explain why Labour MEPs voted to support the adoption of the new rules.
Best wishes,
That'll be an end to the freebie upgrades for the MEP
to and from Brussels then.
Once again those unaccountable pen pushers delve into industries they know nothing about, listen to some non-scientifically based 'research' and conclude that one or two small airlines that have NO FTL limits in place will benefit from over all dictatorial governance whilst all the scientifically based rest and ftl rules go in the bin.
It's yet another fine example of dumbing down the system to fit the lowest common denominator.
UKIP are looking good again, the EU independence vote is looking even better.