My Summary of the proposed EBA, July 2015. Do not believe anything I’ve written below, check it for yourself, this is all my opinion:
Purely based on the treatment of new First Officers, I will be voting “NO”.
Additionally the increases in total package are IMHO severely lacking.
I see no protections to our lifestyle, within our proposed EBA or in the “Un-enforceable Letters”, I see no mechanism by which we will be returning to sustainable crewing levels or reasonable rostering practices.
It was claimed in recent EBA updates that “clear and concrete under takings” were sought, I do not see them in the proposed EBA or side letters.
IMHO this EBA offers poor increases in pay and conditions.
IMHO this proposed EBA throws new “inexperienced First Officers” under the bus.
Perhaps “experienced First Officers” being paid 75% and “inexperienced First Officers” being paid 65% would be more appropriate for highly qualified individuals that are needed to crew these High Capacity RPT aircraft.
I couldn’t imagine living in a capital city on such a small salary.
The work rules, as previously seen in our EBA appear mostly intact ( CAO 48 )
Our previous EBA, July 2011 through June 2014, our last pay rise was July 2013.
The proposed EBA expires December 2018, that covers a period of 4.5 years.
By my calculations:
A five year Q300 Captains entire package, based on 100% PIP and Retention at the end of June 2014 was
$115,332.12
A five year Q300 Captains entire package, based on 100% PIP and 1,000 hours of DHA at the end of December 2018 is proposed to be
$129,497.98, that is a circa 12.3% increase over 4.5 years. Circa 2.7% P/A
Release from Training Bond :
No opinion....
Check and Training Captain Numbers:
Don’t we already have a side letter, for exactly this purpose, dated 03NOV2011, signed by Captains DXXXX and MXXXXXX, penned during our last EBA negotiation, why do we need another one ?, unless of course they haven’t honoured it, which leads to the undeniable question, why do we want another “Un-enforceable Letter” ?
Executive Motor Vehicle Scheme for all Captains:
I talked to an accountant and quickly saw that this offers no benefit to me, the Australian Tax Office always get their pound of flesh. All money or benefits the company bestow upon us ( excepting our approved allowances ) are either taxed as PAYE or under the FBT scheme.
Clause 49.5 in the proposed EBA already gives Captains Club access.
This latest “Un-enforceable Letter”, gives:
Captains: Club access ( which they already have under 49.5 ) and Business Lounge access ( both for duty travel purpose only ),
First Officers: Club access ( for duty travel purposes only ).
Whilst this is nice to have, it won’t help you buy a house or feed the family.
Reserve utilisation and rostering issues:
This “Un-enforceable Letter”, other than stating two designated days free of all duties before and after recreational leave, is IMHO lots of fluff, I can not see any “concrete” commitment by the company to fixing base establishment numbers, rostering, day of operations etc etc.
I can’t see how any of the lack of lifestyle issues we presently have due to the changes that have been forced upon us with the introduction of the optomiser have been fixed or remedied.
Firstly, I thought it was a “Requested Day Off book ( RDO)”, in this “Un-enforceable Letter”, we see the company agree to keep it and not consider late start and early finishes as requests.
The eighteen month “Pay Freeze”, I do not accept the necessity of an eighteen month pay freeze.
If all it took for a CEO to force his/her workers to accept an eighteen months pay freeze, was to publicly state it as a fact and canonise it in internal policy, I bet every CEO on the face of the planet would do exactly that, imagine, reducing the cost of their wage bill by 5% FOREVER.
New FO’s low wages, terrible. Experienced FO’s should be paid more, not the other way around.
Training Salary gone, a good thing for new pilots. But insignificant in the grand scheme.
Command Bond, well that is a personal issue. I personally do not have a problem with this.
Optimiser, our work practices were dramatically changed without what I consider any form of meaningful consultation or incentive for increase in work load, increase in length of trips etc etc.
IMHO present crew levels are unsustainably low.
IMHO allowance increases are too low:
The ATO meal allowances appears to have increased approximately 9.6% from the last EBA.
The company specific allowances appears to have increased 5.9%.
Please let me know if any of my calculations are incorrect, as I am happy to amend.