Harry
If I might be so bold as to correct your methodology of calculating your hourly rate. My contract does not specify 900 hrs. That is an assumption based on regulated yearly max. Probably soon to change!
To my mind it is thus:
12 x Salary + 12 x Provident Fund Contribution. You could add in education and accommodation etc if you were working out your cost to company but probably not in this context.
This should be divided by hours expected before overtime is paid. That would be 1083 (12 months working to productivity the threshold) but then factored by 323/365. We are contracted 42 days leave. These are our days not the company’s, a fact which they conveniently forget when they cram hours into any month that contains leave. Simple theft IMHO.
Thus it is 958 hours of productivity that could be expected. These can be made up how the company chooses: flying, augmenting, sim supporting, training etc.
Hence on a Captains salary of 48K (an approximate median) the rate is 690 per hour.
Overtime is cheap for the company given the true cost of the pilot is much higher if you factor in accommodation, education, medical, uniform, HR overhead etc. The true cost of a captain per hour is close to AED 1000.
In most companies overtime is at a greater rate than the normal hourly rate as an acknowledgement for additional effort and the increased stresses in all aspects of life when one is called to work beyond that which was envisaged.
I see overtime as a punishment where I am forced, without choice, to work for less than my agreed worth. For a company that seeks to be a global brand leader, I find this practice deceptive, misleading and exploitative. Hardly the stuff of greatness and ultimately why the branding will fail. History shows this.
As for the emails of how great we are doing and how we should all be proud, excited and grateful, I find them condescending and demeaning. I wish they would stop.
I doubt the slaves building the pyramids were excited about the wonder they were creating. They probably just wanted more food and less beatings…..