No poaching agreement

[fac_2]

Rumour around Etihad has it that Airmalta has finalsed a non poaching agreement with EY as part of a wet lease A320 contract for the comming winter months.

Some interviews of Malteese pilots are being cancelled!!

[Fly Ginger]

can confirm the rumour...................not sure about the truth behind it. If true, my sympathies to those involved

[Rainboe]

Non-poaching agreements? Malta is in the EC, right? There are strict 'free movement of goods, labour and services in EC laws! I would suggest their pilot union (they are in a pilot union, right?) takes a bit of time with Employment Law specialists. I do believe this sort of thing cannot be legal in the EC and it is possible AirMalta may be laying itself open to fines and compensation making such agreements. It is a practice that must be stamped out. There are very few occasions when an employee can be prevented from working for someone else. But sometimes, the adjustment to attitudes when a country subjects itself to EC laws can be difficult. A few sharp shocks usually starts driving the point home.

[Fly Ginger]

:DRainboe.............an honour indeed!! I have to be a little careful what i say here,my username lets everyone know in KM who i am (ginger hair tends to stick out a little in the med!!) I am also not involved in this, so would be a little unfair for me to jump in, but i know that there are enough KM pilots who read prune, and will no doubt be watching how things evolve over the coming months.


Would this not be one of those very dificult things to prove, obviously unless written down and forced to sign??

I have been fortunate to meet some very good people here, there is a wealth of experience and talent that feels under appreciated, and to have their future cutailed by any means would be a travesty. I really don't mind who in the company reads that.:ok:

Fly Ginger

[fac_2]

Apparently somebody who flew with one of the VPs overheard this. Sorry guys cannot get into more detail !!

[Rainboe]

Just a hint of this happening and you should write to your EC Commissioner of Transport and/or Employment as well as your EC representative in the European Parliament. Ask EY privately, then officially, if the interview has been withdrawn due to any non-poaching agreements- you never know you may strike lucky. Start asking in Air Malta, and take this to your union. This is a practice that has to be stamped out, and they won't be able to get away with it continually. It will only take one disaffected Air Malta manager and the whole thing will become public, then the lawsuits can begin. You can stop it. Now Malta (land of my birth!) is in the EC, companies must toe the line (unless they're French of course!)

[Hansol]

If there was any poaching it would take place in the UAE not the EU so I don't see how EU law would come into anything, anyway this type of agreement is pretty standard in these sort of circumstances.

[Knee Trembler]

You don't need to look as far as the gulf to find anti-poaching agreements. Ask any german pilot and they will tell you of very cosey arrangements between the bigger companies.

I was recently invited to interview by Air Berlin, but as soon as I said I worked for Germania that was it - silence.

Yes, it is of course illegal, but try proving it in court!

KT

[Denti]

Yup, Germania and Air Berlin have a non poaching agreemend and thats widely known. Dont know if Mr. H still has any say in Germania though.

[Rainboe]

Then you should get your pilots union onto it and give those MEPs some work for their money! Once the EC is convinced there is a problem, it can be quite ruthless in raiding offices looking for evidence. Remember it will only take a disaffected involved manager being laid off and all hell will break loose when he tells all. It will happen, and then those people who have reported it or made a noise about it will presumably have a case for damages against the involved parties. If it is happening, it will come out one day.

[Knee Trembler]

You assume the company has a union!

Many small operators manage to withstand the move to unionisation. Most of the employees are sh-t scared of management and have just ploughed all of their hard earned savings into a type rating. If it is your first job and you have less than 1000 hrs you don't want to rock the boat.

Don't get me wrong, Germania is not Ryanair, it's a really nice company to work for and the Ts & Cs have improved dramatically over the last year, but I feel both sides would benefit from union representation and until the average length of service increases this will not happen.

KT

[Gattaca]

www.maltastar.com


Pilots enraged by reports of Air Malta-Etihad non-poaching agreement
Two pilots had interviews with Etihad Airways cancelled
Kurt Farrugia Tue, 24 July 2007
The agreement for a wet lease of an Air Malta Airbus A320 to the United Arab Emirates airline Etihad could very well mean that Maltese pilots may no longer be able work for the UAE airlines, which offers far more better working conditions.

In what is being described by local pilots as a “non-poaching agreement”, Air Malta has agreed to lease its aircraft and a crew to man it (what is known as ‘wet lease’ in aviation terms) to Etihad. In exchange, Etihad has reportedly agreed not to poach pilots from Air Malta.



Interviews cancelled

At least two pilots had their interview for employment with Etihad cancelled since the wet lease agreement was finalised two weeks ago. They were not given any reason for the cancellation of their interview.

One Air Malta pilot will be moving to Etihad in the coming weeks, but only because he was accepted for the post days before the wet lease agreement came into force.

According to the website PPRuNe, the Professional Pilots’ Rumours Network, Air Malta finalised a non-poaching agreement as part of the wet lease of the A320.

But Malta’s national airline is denying the rumour claiming there is no such agreement with Etihad.

Exodus

Air Malta has been experiencing an exodus of pilots leaving the national airline to move on to other airlines offering better employment conditions. The reports that a possible non-poaching agreement may have been agreed with Etihad enraged Air Malta pilots.

"The working conditions being offered in Malta are far worse than what other airlines offer. The Maltese pilots are demanding better conditions or else they will have no option but to look for a better future working for other airlines," pilots told maltastar.com.

On 7 July maltastar.com revealed that the exodus of pilots from Air Malta is resulting in delays of flights leaving Malta. This has worsened since then and a particular flight to Moscow was delayed by 5 hours because of the shortage of pilots.

If Air Malta loses more pilots, the national airline risks a serious operational crisis.

“Instead of tackling the shortage of pilots by giving us better conditions, the management and government seem to be resorting to other tactics,” said the same pilots.

[Freccia]

Not that I agree with this alleged non-poaching agreement, far from it, but a wet-lease contract, which must have been quite a celebrated achievement, must have been quite overshadowed by the fear of yet another mass exodus of pilots. The professionalism of the Air Malta pilots would have surely captured the attention of Etihad’s HR. It’s like putting the ball near the goal post, one soft touch and it’s gone. Air Malta cannot afford such a blow and should tackle the problem head-on by bringing its pilots at par with their counterparts.