Leave is 42 days pro rated, you can bid initially for 2 weeks in summer and then top up later. The rules are really complicated! Leave has wrap around days and extra gold days can be added as well so a 7 day block can end up being more like 10 or 11. Seniority has very little effect on leave, mostly it's how many point you have accrued. August and Xmas leave is mega points, November negligible.
32 days per annum for new PPY50 joiners, 7 days allocated in first summer, new pilots allocated scores as if they have achieved peak in last 3 seasons.
Company have said pilots won't be able to surrender summer leave for next year, e.g. Don't take 2 weeks in summer and get 4 in winter instead due to winter work requirements....so why hire ppy50 and not full time Fo/so ?
Carmen, blocks of days of are not penalised, single days off are. 99% of my days off over the last year or two have been in blocks of at least two, more like 3.
carmen blocks of days off are indeed penalised, a rule set is set to prevent this as it does for single days off, confirmed by Carmen Manager at hug a pilot conference day 2 years ago.
Carmen works for some people less so for others, I find the most successful people are those who just prefer earlies or lates. Or maybe SSH night stops, trying to get a specific day off through Carmen is difficult:
Carmen will only ever work if we have the right number of pilots, this has not been the case for many years, satisfaction seems to be better in the winter when flying programme is quieter which confirms the above or based at a larger base.
Block window still applies on all duties, 2 hours either side.
Crewing been so desperate this year they have agreed with union that Flexi gets paid if you operate outside this too (if you want), see point above about pilot shortage.
Staff travel is pretty good, you are sorta correct but it depends on what you want to book, sensatory hotels for example is your concession (increases with length of service) applied to 70% of the cost so you may only need to pay the 30% in cash. If your concession isn't quite enough then you can top it up with monthly pre tax deductions from your salary. If however you want to travel around Australia and fly Emirates then the discount is way less, I reckon you would need to pay the 75% and use your concessions on 25%, Im guessing a little here as I've never used it on a scheduled carrier.
Agreed, however unfortunately the value of concessions has not increased in 15+ years vs annual holiday prices increasing 5-10% per annum thus rendering them less valuable each year that passes.
Pensions... well I don't know what's happening there, it's actually been stipulated form board/European level as we currently have the highest pension contribution in the group, not sure what's going to happen but the union are fighting hard to keep it at 15%. I think minimum contribution is 3% but most do more
It is a management type of argument, why should pilots get a bigger pension (15% for 3.5%) than management who get less..... Find me a manager that invested £130k in their careers, hopefully the union are still pushing this below the surface otherwise there will likely be a mass kick off as all expect the next step will be to apply this to current pilots, same strategy used when they closed final scheme to new joiners initially....
There is suggestion that the company plan to offer current PPY50 pilots work this year in the winter without the requirement to go overseas on detachment (good news) , this should trigger the, you will then be made permanent full time clause for all said pilots, guess what.... They have said they 'might' offer full time in May to some (different to what agreement/contract says - Bad news) so believe the being made full time after 5 years at your own peril.
it is the same agreements that says you will be made permanent if there is winter work, understandably many ppy50 pilots are annoyed and some now event talking about moving on having been here a while as they don't expect the company to abide to the 5 year term.
There is some misconception that PPY50 pilots should be grateful for the winter work for one season rather than their terms being upheld ?! No one has reached the 5 year promotion point yet, so it remains to be seen if they deliver on that part of the agreement... Be sure to recognise the uncertainty of this when making any decisions and it doesn't look like the union is insisting their trigger to full time clause be enforced for a reason only known to the union and company.
As a final thought, remember the company is very vulnerable to security issues e.g. Tunisia if for example there was an attack in Egypt this would have significant impact on winter work, all it would take is for FCO advice to change on sharm el sheikh where it is all getting a bit exciting in the Sinai Peninsula with ISIS, I fear it will only be a matter of time.
Good luck with decisions.