Race to the bottom...
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Toolman, I'm surprised at your total stupidity given the nature of current events.
Sadly, there are currently 49 good reasons why pilots should be well remunerated, trained and treated well, in the morgue in Yogjakarta.
The "race to the bottom" will continue until the amount of wreckage and the number of grieving families forces a change.
By the way, it applies to cabin crew as well. I predict that the casualisation of cabin crew and their employment through labor hire companies (as apparently QF and Jetstar are now doing) is also going to end in tears for one very good reason.
Management does not understand that casualisation cuts both ways. As a casual employee with no ties to the company, I can walk away at any time with absolutely zero penalty, since I am paid an hourly rate with no loadings, long service leave, etc.
In other words, the company has done its best to detach Cabin Crew from the company to the point where the only bond between them is a pay check received from a third party.
Now the question: In an emergency, say like at Yogjakarta, how long do you think "casual" cabin crew will take before they put their own self-preservation in front of the interests of the passengers and company?
There is a value to what is called "Esprit de Corps", especially in emergencies, but obviously the Board of Qantas doen't believe that.
Sadly, there are currently 49 good reasons why pilots should be well remunerated, trained and treated well, in the morgue in Yogjakarta.
The "race to the bottom" will continue until the amount of wreckage and the number of grieving families forces a change.
By the way, it applies to cabin crew as well. I predict that the casualisation of cabin crew and their employment through labor hire companies (as apparently QF and Jetstar are now doing) is also going to end in tears for one very good reason.
Management does not understand that casualisation cuts both ways. As a casual employee with no ties to the company, I can walk away at any time with absolutely zero penalty, since I am paid an hourly rate with no loadings, long service leave, etc.
In other words, the company has done its best to detach Cabin Crew from the company to the point where the only bond between them is a pay check received from a third party.
Now the question: In an emergency, say like at Yogjakarta, how long do you think "casual" cabin crew will take before they put their own self-preservation in front of the interests of the passengers and company?
There is a value to what is called "Esprit de Corps", especially in emergencies, but obviously the Board of Qantas doen't believe that.
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yesTam.....Well said...There are some people who cannot think beyond dollar terms.
In this business though we are dealing with people not just bank notes
In this business though we are dealing with people not just bank notes
)
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True Yestam, there is obviously a lower limit for cabin crew too. there is some amazing footage of the same company in another incident, think it was their RTO at V1 plus 20kts that resulted in an over run, (go figure 
) and the footage clearly shows the first ones out were the cabin crew, they set a pretty cracking pace for the 200m sprint too! I would suspect a combination of poor training, and poor remuneration would have been contributing factors for this amazing display of professionalism, and the lack there of.
At the end of the day, it all boils down to selling seats in a very price conscious market. No point having the best product on the market, when the front line cant deliver it, because they are either not trained to the level required, or they are so disgruntled that they wont deliver. Nor is there any longevity in providing an inferior product for the same price or higher.
Ironically, in the case of Qantas, some of the highest levels of customer service I have experienced came from the lowest paid FAs. In both cases it was the Kiwi crew on an LA, and again the Kiwi crew on a Joberg. Some of the worst service I have ever seen in my life, was on an aircraft, and was courtesy of some of Qantas' highest paid FAs in the form of the "Yen Men". The company would see this as junior crew are more enthusiastic, therefore, on average give better or a higher level of service. The companies motivation therefore is to achieve a higher level of staff turnover than they currently has in the FA ranks. Dixon has openly acknowledged this. He clearly wants to smash FA terms and conditions probably more than he wants to smash his pilots. They are using the casual hiring to achieve this. Sad, but true.
The race to the bottom is not the exclusive lot of the cockpit crew, infact it affects everyone, except not surprisingly, the greedy salivating executives driving it.
No surprises there though.
With this in mind, it cannot help but effect the passengers too. Surely with all this cost cutting, slashing of T & Cs, "trimming of the service" or streamlining the service, reducing turn around times, jamming in an extra row of seats, they cant help but wonder if courners are being "Streamlined" in other areas? A good question for frontliners like EWL?
) and the footage clearly shows the first ones out were the cabin crew, they set a pretty cracking pace for the 200m sprint too! I would suspect a combination of poor training, and poor remuneration would have been contributing factors for this amazing display of professionalism, and the lack there of. At the end of the day, it all boils down to selling seats in a very price conscious market. No point having the best product on the market, when the front line cant deliver it, because they are either not trained to the level required, or they are so disgruntled that they wont deliver. Nor is there any longevity in providing an inferior product for the same price or higher.
Ironically, in the case of Qantas, some of the highest levels of customer service I have experienced came from the lowest paid FAs. In both cases it was the Kiwi crew on an LA, and again the Kiwi crew on a Joberg. Some of the worst service I have ever seen in my life, was on an aircraft, and was courtesy of some of Qantas' highest paid FAs in the form of the "Yen Men". The company would see this as junior crew are more enthusiastic, therefore, on average give better or a higher level of service. The companies motivation therefore is to achieve a higher level of staff turnover than they currently has in the FA ranks. Dixon has openly acknowledged this. He clearly wants to smash FA terms and conditions probably more than he wants to smash his pilots. They are using the casual hiring to achieve this. Sad, but true.
The race to the bottom is not the exclusive lot of the cockpit crew, infact it affects everyone, except not surprisingly, the greedy salivating executives driving it.
No surprises there though. With this in mind, it cannot help but effect the passengers too. Surely with all this cost cutting, slashing of T & Cs, "trimming of the service" or streamlining the service, reducing turn around times, jamming in an extra row of seats, they cant help but wonder if courners are being "Streamlined" in other areas? A good question for frontliners like EWL?
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Elroy Jettson..I understand your point about cabin crew however I'm sure the same would apply to almost any occupation.
There would be new and younger pilots who would be far happier to be where they are and no where near as reluctant to do certain jobs as older pilots would be.This also applies to almost any job you can think of.The AKL crew might recieve less than Yen man but they have not had to put up with never ending manure from the company.
I remember years ago when a F/O had a shot at a CSM (FSD then) about the cabin crew union taking certain steps with aircraft continually departing Sydney short crew.The F/O was scathing in his rebuke and before the csm had a chance to say something the captain said to the F/O "Knock it off ...you have no idea of what the company is capable of doing..if they didn't do something now the company would continue to send aircraft out short crew"
That is a result of not only age but of a weariness from the continual attacks on you made by your employer and in our case Darth.
It's a pity that the management chose this path instead of trying to work with it's employees to achieve it's aim of a successful and profitable airline with a solid future...
There would be new and younger pilots who would be far happier to be where they are and no where near as reluctant to do certain jobs as older pilots would be.This also applies to almost any job you can think of.The AKL crew might recieve less than Yen man but they have not had to put up with never ending manure from the company.
I remember years ago when a F/O had a shot at a CSM (FSD then) about the cabin crew union taking certain steps with aircraft continually departing Sydney short crew.The F/O was scathing in his rebuke and before the csm had a chance to say something the captain said to the F/O "Knock it off ...you have no idea of what the company is capable of doing..if they didn't do something now the company would continue to send aircraft out short crew"
That is a result of not only age but of a weariness from the continual attacks on you made by your employer and in our case Darth.
It's a pity that the management chose this path instead of trying to work with it's employees to achieve it's aim of a successful and profitable airline with a solid future...
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No arguement from me Lowerlobe, there is no substitue for experience in both customer service, or in QFs case, service recovery issues, nor is there any substitute for experience when it comes to emergency situations either. Enthusiasm only helps in customer service situations, period! There is no question of this. Dixon only knows what his managers tell him. They tell him there is no safety issues with hiring inexperienced overseas staff, so he feels that base is covered, so he concentrates his efforts on improving the companies service issues, and the public perception that QF are Shi"te in that area. He feels he can do it by injecting enthusiasm into the ranks by employing casuals, and increasing staff turnover, and the cheapest way for him to do that is through parasitic sc+m bags like MA, and hiring offshore. a flow on effect of this policy is that it causes further reduction in morale amongst the A scale flight attendants, thus hopefully increasing staff turnover further, and splintering the current work group so they are never in a position to really do anything about it.
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I saw in the paper yesterday that the average HECS debt was now hovering around $35,000 for university graduates.
Whats the average debt for cadet pilots now?
Well if what young people have been telling me ,that have done the QANTAS cadet scheme ,a bill of over $150,000 is quite conservative!
Yet the average wage of a cadet pilot compared to the average wage of your typical Uni graduate just doesn't add up anymore.
Maybe that's why GEN Y's don't bust their boiler to become aviators anymore!
That and working your but off ,and never being home, just to earn enough money to pay the tax man his bills!
Airline executives have a lot to answer for ,for they are directly responsible for the GA-ification of the airline industry in this country today!
My apoligies to the GA companies that are now better run and trained than most of the airlines in this country today.
Whats the average debt for cadet pilots now?
Well if what young people have been telling me ,that have done the QANTAS cadet scheme ,a bill of over $150,000 is quite conservative!
Yet the average wage of a cadet pilot compared to the average wage of your typical Uni graduate just doesn't add up anymore.
Maybe that's why GEN Y's don't bust their boiler to become aviators anymore!
That and working your but off ,and never being home, just to earn enough money to pay the tax man his bills!
Airline executives have a lot to answer for ,for they are directly responsible for the GA-ification of the airline industry in this country today!
My apoligies to the GA companies that are now better run and trained than most of the airlines in this country today.
