Contract Renewal

[tarjet fixated]

Hi guys,
i work for an airline which has more than one base and whose pilots are paid per sector according to the lenght of such sector (up to 80 mins scheduled block to block, up to 120 mins etc.).
Now the problem is that in some bases (due to the far out location) those sectors are generally longer than in other bases and therefore pilots of one base earn more than those in other bases given more or less the same monthly hours/duty...and this can ignite some debate as you can imagine.
We are now negotiating with the company a new contract and things are getting a bit nasty because the tendency is to take from some and give to others to even things up; so basically those who were making more will be having a smaller increase while those who were making less will have a bigger increase with the new contract...and this is also cause for alarm.
I am not a contract specialist nor a union guy with the possibility of comparing different contracts so i would like to know what are the types of contracts out there, if there's a wiser kind which could lead to a better ending where justice will be done for the happiness of all.

[juventus]

Here where I work (states) the contract is hourly rates with a min monthly hours guarantee; I don t know if that would solve the problem at your company.
Ciao

[atse]

You and your colleagues first have to make up your minds if you are fighting with each other or with management. Once you make up your mind not to fight with each other it is "simply" a matter of finding a mechanism to share the work equitably and/or have a minimum monthly hours guarantee (for the purposes of pay).

As is so often the case with pilots, the first problem you need to tackle is yourselves. This is often a more difficult problem than dealing with management. Good luck!!

[tarjet fixated]

What happens with our present contract is that we get a minimum number of sectors guaranteed pay/month so i guess that would look like a standard minimum monthly hours type of contract; of course during a normal month we would fly more sectors than the minimum guaranteed therefore going into overtime...and that's where most of the money is made.
Someone told me that if we reverted from sectors to hours we would have to fly more in order to go into overtime if compared with the present system...and this is one of the points i don't seem to get...reverting to hours could have been the solution me thinks.
About bringing pilots together...well that's what we are trying to do and finding an acceptable solution for everyone is the best way to do so.
That's why i'm trying to bring in new ideas by asking your opinion and advice.

[cavortingcheetah]

;) Last time I worked in Bella Italia, bella Bergamo, we were paid a guarenteed eighty hours a month salary and then a fixed rate per hour afterwards. This worked well and over eighty hours we could make a lot. The hours in question were DUTY hours, not flight hours. I am fully aware that FTLs are different over there.
All of us, from several nationalities, were very happy with the arrangement and no one was carved up by anyone else.
The difficulty you may face, as has been pointed out, is to get all the pilots in one corner.:cool:

[tarjet fixated]

Are you talking 80 hours duty or block?
Our present contract is based on sectors which if converted to hours (block hours that is) comes out to approximately 60hrs; and that is our minimum guaranteed.
I would be interested to know if there are any other types of contract that work on a different logic...some airlines are using a system which pays out any working day regardless of sectors or hours flown for instance.