Medical fees rip off? - Dr or easyJet

[albinexpress]

Just looked at the easJet remuneration package and for captains they offer £280.32 PER ANNUM to cover medicals, having just had my six monthly medical I wrote two cheques: one for £165 to my Dr and one for £27 to the CAA for the ECG (NB six monthly mediacl). I must ask the following - 2 x 165 + 27 sure dont make the easyJet figure of £280.32.
Who is ripping of who??

[Docfly]

Swings and roundabouts matey. If you were under 30yrs old, needed a medical annually and and an ECG only every 5yrs then you would prof. If over 50yrs old with 6 monthly med and ECG then you lose. The doc's not ripping you off, if you don't like it ask around for a quote, some of us are cheaper than others. I'll even do last minute medicals for those who have "forgotten", did one on a Sunday once and charged double. Similarly if you don't like what easy pay then go elsewhere. I try and charge about the same as a plumber which also happens to be about the same hourly rate as getting the Merc serviced.

[albinexpress]

Thanks DOCFLY nice to know I'm not overpaying, shame that easyJet don't reimburse the full amount for the over 50s, especially as they are trying so hard to recruit experienced drivers, it certainly put me off a little. Cheers anyway, thanks for the info.

[ 07 September 2001: Message edited by: albinexpress ]

[Docfly]

I hope you also had an audiogram done for that money (2 yearly requirement) otherwise it would be a bit steep!

[Grandad Flyer]

Good grief. EasyJet were offering £30k just to go work for them. They pay thousands of pounds a year to Captains who, lets face it, choose to apply to work for them. And you are quibbling over £104 per year. Get a life.

[Gypsy]

albinexpress - after making your decision to turn down the £3600 per mth after tax, plus pension, loss of licence, legal, death in service and personal accident insurances (and maybe even some shares) because of the possibility of being out of pocket by a hundred quid or so every year, can I just suggest you get your brain checked on your next medical!

[Leviathan]

Easy Gents,

A bit of perspective perhaps, FAA Class One ($75) CAA Class One (£280) All components of examination almost identical.

Talk about getting it where the Sun don't shine!! ;)

[BoeingBoy]

Gypsy, Grandad Flyer…. It is precisely the attitude that you express that will destroy the standard of remuneration and degrade employment conditions in this country.

If the status quo is that the company can reclaim tax on the cost of your medicals then you should be entitled to full reimbursement. If you start trading off your salary to subsidise the company you will be laughed at by the accountants all the way to the bank.

Don’t. I say again, Don’t ever trade away your position for anything in return. If you give in to a hundred or so here and there where does it end……..With you being replaced by a Bolivian or a Russian pilot willing to take half what you now regard as good money.

Work like a professional, get paid like one !

[Gypsy]

Oh dear.....!

If you want to quibble about trivia then go ahead.

For the record, as a 40+ trainer in eJ my P60 for last year showed a gross well in excess of £87K and my medicals cost less than £280pa. In addition, there is tax relief for medicals and other professional costs.

[Stan Woolley]

So to quote Tommy Cooper:

'It's the money not the principle'

:rolleyes:

[beamer]

Fortunately most of us in employment have our
medicals paid for by the company - I'm glad
to say that mine simply refunds whatever sum
I am charged for by my Dr who I must say is
an excellent chap.

As an aside however - years ago when I was
in the military, many pilots either had or
were in the process of acquiring civilian
licences - PPL through to ATPL. There was a
long standing unofficial agreement with the
station medical centre that the Docs would
give a Class 1 medical for the price of a
bottle of duty-free. We all got on well with
the medics who were normally of about the
same rank and merrily met at happy hour on a
friday night - if the said docs wanted a
back-seat/jump-seat ride then no problem.
Then things changed - 'Oh we are going to
charge you £25 for the medical - make the
cheque payable to me and I'll put a couple
of quid in the booze fund for the medical
centre Xmas Do.'

Surprise, surprise - relationship between
Docs and aircrew changed - no more freebie
flights - if we have to pay for your professional experience then you can't expect
to take advantage of ours for nothing either ! All very petty and rather sad - at
least now I know the score with my medical
examiner and we get on just fine .