We want better rosters? This is how we do it
STAY THE COURSE!!
Yes, the rosters on all fleets are bad and the cumulative fatigue is being felt by everyone. Airbus rosters are the worst. 747 not far behind with the continuous disruptions and delays and swapping from day flight to night flight. 777 is the best but still not enjoyable flying 3 LRO's and the fatigue eventually gets you and you end up in that 4 hour sleep cycle. I don't think there is any need for a pissing contest who has it the hardest. I would say the Airbus for sure and the NAM 11 day freighter patterns that the NAM crew operate are right up there. 11 days away from your family is not acceptable, unless it is infrequent ,requested, or rewarded with time off afterwards.
You can bitch all you want, it won't fix it. Cx cannot move to fix these issues or don't want to.
I would love to hear some solutions, perhaps something different. The HKAOA has put across many ideas to address exactly what you are all complaining about. We can look at other solutions if you have some, otherwise we just look at what other airlines do and the logic behind it. Generally this works and is not re-inventing the wheel.
Rigs, were invented to level the playing field between LRO and short haul, they work very well. If you want them, you will have to fight.
Return of Service (ROS) once you have done 2-3 years to pay off the training costs of your present endorsement you can bid in strict seniority onto the fleet of your choice.
Lufthansa has 1.3, I believe as a credit factor for short haul flying, plus other airlines increase the factor for WOCL flying.
You can get paid for disrupition downroute and roster changes. You can increase G day payment.
Table X was built to recover from jet lag. It does not take into account social considerations. Plus with Table X stopping at 6 days off, there is no penalty for extending someone downroute for say 10 days or more. In fact the longer the pattern the better for CX. Solution would be to Extend Table X so that once you exceed 7 days away it becomes a 1 for 1. A 8 day W pattern gets you 8 days off, 10 day freighter pattern gets you 10 days off and so on. Then you could build a regional Table X , for the length of duty cycle and whether you spent sometime at home duriing your duty cycle. West Jet in Canada has 5 day patterns and give 5 days off afterwards.
You could change the pay system, as you will need to build a pay window for a roster computer to work properly and allow for your lifestyle requests and to satisfy the company in productivity they want. Easier to use the standard systems of a mid 70 hour pay threshold, then hourly pay into the 90's with a stiff EFP cap above , say, 92. This allows both sides to move within the window and everyone is happy. CX gets what they pay salary for and then pays hourly after that, you can work within the window of hours. It allows FRMS to function properly by assigning based people the regional patterns that suit their timezones, so the HKG crew aren't flying 2 man WOCL.
I could write for hours about the faults and where we need to go. It has pretty much all been put into a proposal and spent the last 3 years trying to convince CX this is what we need to motivate crew, and get the job done. It has to start with getting enough crew. Which means training. Which means getting people back on side.
Little progress is being made moving the airline forward and a vision of the future is cloudy at best.
A lot of work went into addressing rostering issues already for you. The company won't accept them yet, even though they are likely the most sensible way forward. They need more time to see the downfalls of their present system. So we sit and wait.
It is time to stick together and try and address the many years of roster abuse and put in a fair system that will test time and address both sides issues. It can be done.
One side is unwilling at the moment.
It is getting worse and will continute to degrade and become more unstable as we expand. It is this negative enegry that is required to move the pendulum far enough in one direction so that it can swing hard in the other direction. It is the way the world works.
I am interested in fixes or ideas if you have some for rostering. But we have done a lot of work already in this area. Just remember your anger and wishes when it comes time to vote. If you don't like the deal, vote NO. That is why you pay dues!
Submitted entirely without permission from the author and for that I appologise.