Originally Posted by
FACoff
Rostering - 5 lates, 4 off, 5 earlies, 3 off. 28 days reserve (flexi roster) once every 5 months roughly.
Have they done away with transitions then?
Transitions are when they turn some of your earlies into lates and vv which makes an utter nonsense of the above stable, logical sounding pattern. They are seriously disruptive to one's lifestyle and rest pattterns and when I left not long ago were at some bases more the norm than the exception.
Origin? Over a period of years BALPA had negotiated the roster pattern quoted as random rostering and day by day roster chages were killing us and eventually gained it at considerable cost in concessions elsewhere. * The company found they hated the "loss of flexibility". Soon thereafter "transitions" appeared where lates were found in early week and vv, and were often applied as changes after roster publication too. The excuse given was that the agreement was merely a preferred framework or some such weaselling bullshine and nowhere had the company signed to say they
couldn't put earlies into late week etc etc. BALPA were blindsided by this - who would have guessed such trickery would result from the long awaited and agreed stable roster pattern? Not BALPA, that's for sure but they were hardly to balme for not anticipating such a callous deception.
You are dealing with the hardest-nosed bean-counters in the business and they will extract anything they can from you if necessary, always backed up by a surprised and indignant sounding, "But it's perfectly legal" to justify it's safety and thus unquestionable acceptability.
There's lots that's good about Easy but honest adherence to union/company agreements and recognising the need for a sustainable lifestyle has not been a widely recognizable feature. People mean very little, you are easily replaceable. Its much worse for cc.
* At the same agreement they introduced "flexi month". To aid roster stability the requirement for 20% standby cover was built in to the pattern with a month of solid standby, just days off rostered in ones and twos - ie pretty useless for recovery but on a month of SBY with a proportion of not being called was probably acceptable. The SBY month lasted no time at all and almost immediately morphed into a month of nigh-on solid random rostering. ie exactly what the agreement had been set up to avoid. Again, the answer was that nothing in the agreement had said they couldn't break their word and do that!
Flexi rostering is a euphemism for a month of debilitating random rostering with few SBY - and in my experience they always turned into duties. It isn't fun.