Easyjet Scrap 6/3 pattern
 

Easyjet have just scrapped their 6/3 pattern for cabin crew. The nightmare of incompetent random rostering is upon you. Good luck with your applications elsewhere. Shameful behaviour from a company that consistently bites the hand that feeds :D

There is already an extensive discussion on this in the 'easyJet PpRuNe PRIVATE forum'. All cabin crew who are not a member of this forum join it now by clicking here

Could take up to 12 months to come into force. The 6/3 pattern is not enjoyed by all Cabin Crew. I will prefer the random rostering pattern as that is what I have been used to for most of my career. I understand that some people plan ahead if they already know days off for months to come, but it is personal preference. I feel it is a positive move forward for job security. I am sure there will be plenty more changes to come.

Ladies and Gentlemen, have you ever done random rostering within easyJet?

I did it for 6 months when I first joined and it was awful. You would work up to 7 days on, then at times just 1 day off and then back in on a block of 6 days. Duty days were random in that some weeks you would do all lates, other weeks mainly earlies - sometimes even start on lates and end on earlies. It was impossible to plan for things and more often than not you would be on minimum rest between duty periods. I was going home from work absolutely hanging at night.

If the company can not manage 6 and 3, they certainly won't be able to manage random rostering. Crew will run out of hours early in the year and will spend a lot of time on HCT and other crew will end up picking up the slack.

What the company needs to do is invest a bit more time and money in the rostering department, analyse exactly how many crew are needed per group and get the right numbers in the groups. Why on earth are we constantly at LGW (and other bases LPL for instance) having crew who are doing week after week of late duties? The company abuses 6 and 3 by allocating duties in the wrong way, then they say it does not work!

Random rostering will be a complete and utter disaster, but management won't care because we are just a resource to be used up and discarded (like a BCF!).

then you havn't experienced random rostering 'easyjet style'. Bugger all to do with job security too. Merely an easy fix for an underperforming rostering department..welcome to the wonderful world of single days off and 8 days off a month. Why do you think most pilots would walk if it happened to them?

As I said earlier its personal preference. Some people will be happy with the random rostering and some wont. I have experienced random rostering at various companies and still prefer it. I dont expect Easyjet do it any different to other companies. 7 days on, single days off is normal for companies to roster on a random roster.

And the vast majority of crew joined this company knowing that it had a fixed pattern roster, something which was the envy of a lot of airlines.

I love the fact that I have 3 days off at the end of a block of days on. I have things to do outside of work. There is a saying "Work to live, not live to work" and unfortunately easyJet management think it's "Live to work, not work to live"

If we scrap 6 and 3 then I can see an awful lot of cabin crew resigning, hell working in Tesco would be better - at least I would get cheap shopping! :}

If I read this I'm more than happy to leave this company where care and conenience is only another try to crew the screw over!..:=

Is not only that I'm DTM crew...EasyJet is getting worse and worse..no happy place to stay and work.

Sally, I think there will be a lot of UK crew leaving soon once this takes effect.

"Low Cost with care and convenience" my arse - where is the care of the crew and convenience for the crew?

And where do these changes fit in with our 5 pillars? It's all crap! :*

It's an absolute joke. As GOOMG says, get ready for 7 day weeks, lates to earlies (which many of the 320/1 crew are being subjected to on a regular basis). I can't remember who said it but it's true: flexible means flexible for easyJet, not flexible for you.

Where has my quality of life gone? Down the drain. The way I work is more restricted, I'm not allowed to have as much fun, I'm treated like a child and management seem to do what suits them. You call in sick? Oh no no, you should have waited until the morning too see how you were feeling - don't you know how much sickness costs us? On the other hand, come in to work and get offloaded - well then you should have called in sick?

Go in for a return to work chat and they want to know the intimate details. What exactly was wrong, what did you take for it, perhaps you should take vitamin supplements. It appears our modest ACCMs are moonlighting as doctors.

The problem is that the company thinks they can walk all over us. I appreciate the pinch from the price of oil, but alienate your cabin crew and you're in a tough situation. Expect to see many, many people leaving. Heck, it's just like any other airline now with random rostering, what's keeping people here? Heck, even Ryanair can make fixed 6-3/5-3 (depending on base) work.

Everyone, no matter what your view, needs to make it know to the union. If you're not a member, join - make us stronger as a workforce and show them we will not be trodden on.

For what it's worth, the company I work for is bringing in 'variable' roster for all new starts and hoping to phase out 6/3.
Now, I work in crewing/ops and the 'variable' roster makes our jobs a damned sight easier. Not much use you guys hearing that, but, from a management perspective (and I'm not management) I can see why it's being done.
I believe that Easy use the same rostering system that we do. Good luck !

Crew are a resource, horrible I know to use that term when a person is on the end of a roster, but 6/3 patterns are very wasteful in terms of daily crew workload. On the positive side if Easyjet will provide some sort of trip, day off request system, then "random rostering" is a step forward. Like most other airlines on this planet use.

Trust me, when I'm having to do both Ops and crewing as well as having to organise taxis/hotac flight plans etc etc, whilst only have three of us in the office to deal with 20+ a/c, ANYTHING that makes my job easier is welcome !
Obviously, Easy have seperate Ops/crewing depts so I can't comment on their working practices.
I know our crew have nothing like the roster disruption that you may have, BUT, the main reason for disruption is sickness. Tell you what, cut out the sickness and you halve the disruption. Easy really :ugh:

Tell you what sort out the rosters to be a bit less tiring and the sickness will reduce!! Everyone is happy! :)

P.S not aimed at you as you don't work at EZY!

I know you will probably hate me for this but having worked in crewing/ops before, i doubt any crewing officer works on the basis "oh they've done a hard shift before lets not put them on that trip", if its legal then do it.

When you work in ops/crewing, you have to manage crew levels on a day to day basis and you have to be company minded because if you delay the aircraft because you haven't got the correct cover, it will be crewing that have to answer to the managers and explain why and what alternatives did you seek.

Airlines are business's and will do whatever they have to do to make things work. Crew is not an easylife, i've done it myself and it is hard but when you work low cost, it is prob one of the most physically demanding rosters you will ever have but unfortunately you can't have surplus crew just sitting about.

I think by doing what they are doing or intend to do will soon see the weaker crew leave. if you want plenty of days off and an adequate social life then find an airline that offers that. Easy is low cost meaning low fares and therefore you have to budget with that. Low costs means stretching everything to its maximum as possible to keep your costs low.

I always thought the fixed rostering pattern is what keeps people at Easyjet!

In my previous life (Not Easyjet) I was in Ops Control / Crewing and also did a stint rostering.

Yes drag and dropping does happen but sometimes it is the only way to get the rosters out on time. There isn't time to look at crews as individuals unfortunatly.

Computers do do rosters, but you always need human intervention, there is training to consider, sickness. Even when you have run the roster with the computer someone comes up and says someone has gone long term sick, or needs additional training. So this not only affects the individual roster but often 10 more people as things are moved around to cover the duties. You won't get rid of rostering officers unfortunatly!!

It would have been nice to be able to be bit more personal but this is the real world!

A LOT of crew will leave if the roster pattern changes. Many many people have said that is why they stay at easyjet, crew and flightdeck.

I have only been at EasyJet for a year but even in just 12 months it has deteriorated completely... I hear 'rumours' about how fun it was just a couple of years ago.

The 6/3 pattern loss will not be a long term fix for easyjets problem. The problem is mis-management of crew and duties. For example, sending gatwick crew to milan, sending stansted crew to gatwick to cover. Point?? They are wasting twice as much money as they would if they just sent stansted straight to Milan. If you look a little closer, there is so much money wasting going on, multiple taxis at the same time to the same place with one person in each taxi, taxi-ing people then cancelling the flight they are suposed to be working... the list is endless!

I understand that crewings job must be difficult sometimes, but these are simple things that could save a fortune!!!

Personally, most of the time I am happy at EasyJet but what with the threat of 6/3 disappearing, temporary staff working my flights (22 sectors in July, what is that all about!!), my unpaid leave request being denied... Yes I am searching elsewhere.

EasyJet will come to regret this very very soon... they could survive this oil price impact if they treated us better and listened to our ideas. After all, who knows what would work better? Those sitting in a room somewhere in Luton, or those that are actually out there working and having to follow these (stupid) rules and regulations?!!

Rant over :-)

Small base restructure
 

As I understood it from the e-mail, the company is seeking greater flexibility in the small bases, implying the 6-3 pattern could stay in the large bases. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it may just be something we in the regions need to worry about at this stage. A great shame - getting a fixed pattern was THE big achievement at easyJet, when it was introduced, and I would hate to lose it.:(

The way I read the email implied it would be for all crew. Regardless, it's yet another hit to our declining terms and conditions. It's happening slowly, but it's definitely happening. Restricted summer leave, temporary contracts for new entrants, and now this. It's a race to the bottom.

Even for pilots?