CHC Roster

[Fatigue]

Just curious guys, How exactly is the new roster going be, and will it be at all the bases or just Aberdeen? Do you get any holiday as well?? Like 4-5 days a year so that you can have a 2 week break total?
Thanks a million,
Fatigue.

[DeltaNg]

Just ABZ at the moment
7-7 or 5 2 5 9 ( i think).
Holiday not inculded, you have to organise a swapsie.

Other bases are likely to ask why they don't have something similar.

[pitchlink]

DeltaNg,

You asked: "Other bases are likely to ask why they don't have something similar."

The answer would have to be that they have not organised themselves to get such a roster, or it cannot be justified on the workload. In the case of HUY, I would say the former would be more likely. When are you guys going to get with the program, stop complaining about what the other bases have and organise yourselves into a cohesive unit in order to approach the company over such issues with which you are not happy?
My experience has been that HUY has a lot to say, but no-one from there is willing to put their head above the parapit and put your case forward. I understand that in the recent CC elections, no one from HUY was willing to stand!

Other bases are working on introducing similar rosters!

[offtrack]

Gentlemen,

the new worksystem has its origin in CHC Norway, where the pilots works 5-2-5-9, the summer vacation is 30 days, organized by the crew office.

On the 14-14 system, you get 18 days vacation during the summer.

On thursdays, the flightsschedule for the following week is in the mailbox, all the flights or standby duty is listed.

[MaxNg]

CHC Aberdeen Roster

There are (at present) two patterns within the roster system, 5 on, 2 off, 5 on, 9 off, 5 on, 2off. 6 on 8 off, which is a six week cycle in total, this perticular pattern is called the Monday /friday system as you always start the cycle (youv'e guessed it ) on Monday!!!


The second is called the seven/severn pattern (any takers for the pattern!!!) and those pilots on this roster are those that will work every other weekend and the ratio of pilots on either pattern is decide by the company to cover the weekend work schedual.

Both patterns are fully inclusive of leave and as previously stated if you want to take what would normally be a work day off then you would need to swap a day with another pilot (subject to ops approval), However that said we have developed the roster with a couple of mutual benifits in mind and these are as follows, the first and formost is that of predictability and plannability.

For the pilots

Predictability.
This is achieved by the publishing of a roster pattern for each pilot showing his/her days on duty for the next FOUR years (FOUR years!!! previously we were only given the next months roster 28 days in advance and then this changed many, many times.)

Plannability.
This is achieved by the publication every Thursday the next four weeks roster with the first week showing the individual pilot schedual for the week (starting monday), and weeks two, three and four showing those days that he/she is on duty and any training/CRM/other course's that are comming up.

For the company.

Flexibility through the year.
This is a major step forwards for the company and we have gone to great lenghts to build in a method to allow the company cover shortages or extra short term work by having tha ability to offer pilots extra days work (subject to the FTL scheme) and rather than incur an immediate overtime payment the company are able to Bank the day worked in the pilots name and offer it back to them at some later mutually agreed date when capacity allows, this should reduce the companies overtime bill.

Ther are other benifits like training planning and recruitment planning that have been no existant under the old system, that would increase efficiency and cost savings yet to be realised.

The major problem that we face with the introduction of this roster is not one of our making, and that is we are short of around fifteen pilots in Aberdeen alone and this is going to be a very hard winter for all those pilots working to FTL limits.

However we will not revert to the chaos system of before of that I can assure you.

MaxNG

:E

[SFIM]

hows the non aberdeen (i.e english bases) equal time roster coming along?

any movement to equalize the bases yet?

SFIM

[Vertolot]

MaxNg,

Just curious, when you are going for example the 7 on 7 off roster. Are the pilots living on base for 7 days? Are they on duty or stand-by while they are living on base and not flying? How is this "stand-by" time counted as work time/Duty time? What kind of monthly Work/Duty/Flight time limitations do you have??

Hope this question was not to complicated, thanks anyway

Cheers;)

[chainblock]

Max Ng

You don't have to arrange a swap with another pilot to get a day off. You just ask nicely for it by putting Requested Day Off into the system and if the powers that be have enough pilots your RDO gets activated.

[Hummingfrog]

Vertolot

Most Aberdeen based pilots live in or near Aberdeen so at the end of the day they go home. The company provides no accommodation at Aberdeen and you work a normal roster with the usual FTL limits, i.e. a minimum of 12hrs off between day shifts and if you are on the 7/7 roster a max flying time for the 7 days of 35hrs.

HF

[chainblock]

Hummingfrog, I am pleased to say that although the CAA approved 35 hours in 7 days for the 7/7 roster that only applies to commuting pilots, of which there are none.

So it is 30 hours in 7 and every week I do about 29.7 hours which makes me a very happy little (large) pilot:E

C

[SASless]

30 hours in 7 days....gosh...how can you guys cope? Hellish pace that!

My alcohol ravaged brain tells me that is about 60 hours per month...maybe 70, living at home each night. Tough roster boys! Two pilots and an autopilot...my how times do change. Harken back to the days of single pilot, no autopilot and doing the same runs you do now. The operators are sure getting benevolent.

[SFIM]

anyhow, as I asked earlier, does anyone know what the progress is on english bases getting equality with aberdeen re equal time ?

SFIM

[chainblock]

alcohol, you and me both

BUT 52 divided by 2 equals 26 weeks work times 30 hours per week equals 780hours per year which is just 20 short of the 800 annual total so just a little bit of planning gives the company 800 hours a year and me an equal time roster:\

[Hummingfrog]

Chainblock

I knew you Puma boys had it easy compared to those of us on the offshore prison routine:p

May be joining you soon though:confused:

HF

[MightyGem]

Both patterns are fully inclusive of leave and as previously stated if you want to take what would normally be a work day off then you would need to swap a day with another pilot
So, what happens if you want to take a three week holiday?

[MaxNg]

Mighty Gem

If you work any day other than those you are rostered too you "bank" that day and can take it off later subject to agreement with the roster dept this system has been termed "trading days" and you can build up a bank of days or go into debit and string these days together along with your normally rostered off days to give you three weeks off, and although the 182 day roster includes all you leave entitlement you will still be given a summer and winter leave booking option which will allow you to book ahead what days (that you would have otherwise been rostered on duty) you want to take as leave and then pick out days on the published roster where you would PAY BACK those extra days you have either took of or will be taking off.

The prime concept behind the trading days is that the company can call forwards spare capacity and give those days back (mutually agreed) later without incuring overtime payments, thus saving the company a small fortune, the benifit to the pilots are that if we volunteer to work those days we can have them back later when it suits thus giving us choice and planability.

I hope that this makes sense to you but if you need any more info then please let me know as this roster has given the pilots a work life balance that is paying dividends for both parties, moral has improved beyond all recognition and it's recruitment potential is proving itself.

[cyclic]

When CHC take the CG contract, will they be offering equal time rosters or will it be a case of living on the islands? Just wondered if there was info with regards to proposed rostering - interested party...

[MightyGem]

Thanks Ng, I was just curious, that's all. Makes my 4 on, 4 off plus 20 days leave seem pretty good. But then again I don't get paid as much as you.

[MaxNg]

Mightygem

Your roster sounds like a SAR/EMS roster to me ?

How many duty hours are you working on your days on ?

Sounds like a good roster :ok:

[212man]

Location: Woodvale....................Looks like a Police roster to me!;)

Actually, when I was at Woodvale I had a pretty good roster too, mind you I was on a UAS (sorry, THE UAS)

[SASless]

Biggest thing the Plod Air Force does all day is top off the Tea Cup and dig through the stale Stickys. How tuff a day can that be unless the Telly kicks off in the middle of the ball game?

[handysnaks]

Wouldn't touch stale stickies sassy.
Only the freshest will do...:p

[MightyGem]

12 hour shifts, 2 days, 2 nights. 48 hours in any 7 days. Including leave, we only work for 162 days a year. :O

[Brilliant Stuff]

Biggest thing the Plod Air Force does all day is top off the Tea Cup and dig through the stale Stickys. How tuff a day can that be unless the Telly kicks off in the middle of the ball game?


We get homebaked cakes. Much healthier.:E