Seniority and 'Last In , First Out

[brianmay]

Quite a nasty subject since 911 but mine is a simple question but it relates to an Employment Law issue called Custom and Practice.

When talking of Seniority in companies, is it normal for it to hinge on Date of Joining or on the date that the Final Line Check is achieved?

Without begging the question I was under the impression that if you arrive in a company qualified in your trade but not necessarily Type-Rated, your seniority within that company was based upon the date your contract started ie Day 01.

[Intruder]

Start of training ("class date") is the norm in the US.

[126.9]

The norm is different from company to company; let alone between all the countries that post here.

Date of joining where I'm from.;)

[Airbusser]

It used to be date of line check at Sabena......

[kriskross]

Whatever it was, it didn't help in Dan Air!!!

[P.Pilcher]

Does it really matter? I got kicked out of Brymon over 10 years ago despite similar policies being in place when I was 1/3 of the way up the seniority list. It was convenient for them to do this because they wanted to stop operating a route and therefore close the base that operated it. Two pilots and three cabin crew were disposed of.

[fiftyfour]

brianmay

I wouldn't place much reliance on 'seniority' or 'first in last out.'

When BA bought struggling Dan Air for £1 in the 1992 recession, they ignored the existing written agreement with BALPA for first in last out on a seniority basis. ( Balpa/Chris Darke played it softly softly because of the confliction with 3500 balpa members in BA). BA only kept those pilots who were current on B737 CFM and already based at LGW: seniority was not a factor for redundancy. Two years later, when ex Dan Air pilots forced Balpa to pursue the case in court, and the case was about to get to the steps of the industrial court re 'unfair dimissal,' there was a settlement with payments of approx £10,000 to £15000 depending on seniority and disadvantage. The cost to BA was about £4 million, small beer when you consider that BA gained £8 miliion alone by winding up the Dan Air pilot's pension fund.

It turned out that the most senior pilot in Dan-Air was prematurely retired, and the most junior was transferred to BA(EOG) and is now in BA.

I would say that BA is very big and very powerful. Balpa is ineffectual in smaller airline cases like this because it has so many BA members. The courts/tribunals can only award massive damages to sexual discrimination cases - so they are hardly much use to those who have unfair dismissal cases caused by commercial arrogance.

In short , dont rely on seniority for anything.