man power

[The hippy]

The summer season has arrived!!!
My company has decided that the man power for the first month will remain the same as for the winter, till the hanger workforce is available .
This has means that 4x4 shift pattern is 3 days 3 nights and 2 off.
(I thought the CAA where hopeing companies would self regulate overtime!!!)
At present we will be 2 men 4 a/c per shift.
what man power a/c ratios are you on?

[This message has been edited by The hippy (edited 01 May 2000).]

[spannersatcx]

The hippy, what does your contract say? Is your basic week 37.5hrs for instance and does it say OT expected and a minimum amount of hrs? If you need legal advice join the ALAE at http://www.lae.mcmail.com they have a legal guy who is pretty switched on and can guide you accordingly. There are no hard and fast rules for engineers hrs at the moment as far as I know, although this is likely to change. You could also drop a line to CHIRP http://www.chirp.dircon.co.uk/ complete confidentiallity, also they have a bit of a thing going at the moment with shift hrs etc.

The following statement appears at the bottom of one anonimous letter about shift patterns
A key point from this extended commentary is the need to balance shift patterns with staff and
workload, as highlighted in Para. 3a. Companies are required to demonstrate this under their JAR
145 Approval.

[This message has been edited by spannersatcx (edited 01 May 2000).]

[The hippy]

Good point.

The o/t is to help your pals cope with their shifts so that they help you cope with yours.

Last year the CAA whated to know what man power to A/C ratios we had. (6 A/C to one tech and one mech)
They showed great concern, but the company wrote them a letter telling them we had blokes on courses ,this they then accepted and went away, but as soon as theses trained men arrived the management reallocated some of the summer alocated men to other bases!

I know some of you will say "stand up and don`t do the O/T that will make the company act" but like alot of companies we have a couple of people who would do 70 to 80 hours a week if you let them.(the CAA also were aware !!!!)

So where do you go from here. Do you think companies can regulate them selfs or does the 4 days off give them a big lever to plead for you to do O/T.

I have no complaints with the company as such, but what is the correct ratio of A/C to men, help me out with some numbers.
does the ANO state anything or BCAR`s.



[This message has been edited by The hippy (edited 03 May 2000).]

[growler]

Hippy,'M' have been playing the fiddle factor game with regard to manpower for years in the Line Maint Dept. It all started way back with BG, but doesn't seem to have improved with his departure. I seem to recall that the equation used was 3 men per shift for the first 4 aircraft. Any increses in aircraft were met with an increase in labour, but not 1 for 1. If you went to 5 a/c you got 1 more guy, but then had to wait for 2more a/c before getting another man.
Although it is difficult to do because as you stated you do the o/t to help friends in the hope that they will help you, the best thing is to limit o/t, with pressure applied to those who revel in an 80 hour week.
If you feel that your shift becomes harder because nobody is on o/t, remember this:
Your shift is only 12 hours long, only so much can be done by 3 men in 12 hours. The biggest way to make your mark under such circumstances is to make sure at least 1 goes out late in the morning.Do you have 3rd party work at your station? If so a late departure on their aircraft will probably have more effect than one of your own, although I do know that the airline managers are quite regularly beating the engineering managements head about manning levels, so a delay for that reason may help.

[greaseytech]

Our company has a system of annualised hours. Winter shift averages out at 44 hours a week with the summer at 30; but it never works out that way. Most of the winter we work a 49 hour week, and it is a killer especially in the months of January and February when most accidents and sickness absences occur. Now they tell us that they want 7 day a week, 24 hour coverage on 'C' checks with no additional man power! Quart into a pint pot comes to mind! The management have ruled out 4 x 4 shift on the grounds of lack of continuity on more complex jobs. I understand that some maintenance organisations work this system for heavy maintenance, so how do they overcome this problem? Or do they just do the basic task cards with no snags or rectification and be damned? Your comments please.

[growler]

I believe that M @ LTN are about to go onto 4x4 in the hangar, albeit for the summer season. any news on the buyout greasy??

[greaseytech]

Hi Growler,

I hear so much of Spotty M re-arranging their shift pattern to suit their maintenance programme that they might get it right one day. I met an 'M' bloke who I used to know in my military days. He left BAMC when the 7 on, 3 off, 7 on 4 off was introduced, and he seemed quite happy with the 'M' shift as it was. I'll have to nip over and buy him a coffee some time and find out what is happening over the apron.

As for the sell off, all has gone very quiet on that front. There is a Q and A forum at work; various people have made valid contributions to it to try to convince management that it would be better to keep maintenance in house and take on 3rd party work but the reply 'Maintenance is not considered part of TTO core operations' keeps appearing. Intreseting how BA had the same thoughts some years ago, yet to my knowlidge they still do a lot of in-house maintenance! I believe that Britannia have a cost effective maintenance system now, but it will become very expensive once it is farmed out. Also, if the mew company takes on a lot of other maintenance, will Britannia get all their 'C' checks done in the core winter months at cost and on time? I think not.

[growler]

Update on 'M' hangar shifts,after the guys were all geared up to go on 4x4, preparing to get megabucks on shift pay and rostered o/t, they have been told 'all change'. Some will go to 3x3 (36 hours no O/T) and the rest Mon - Fri (no shift pay, no o/t).