Cabin Crew Shafted
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Cabin Crew Shafted
CX " Hourly " cabin crew have just had their swap policy changed so that they will not be able to swap to reduce their Flying hours Below the Minimum 70 hours that they are paid for. Another morale boosting move invented by a bean counter.
Do the pilots have to " watch this space?"
Do the pilots have to " watch this space?"
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CX has suspended the implementation of new swapping guidelines for cabin
crew.
The company backed down due to massive complaints from Cabin Crew.
Stand together for something you believe in and results can be achieved. Lets see the same drive from the AOA & the pilot body...
crew.
The company backed down due to massive complaints from Cabin Crew.
Stand together for something you believe in and results can be achieved. Lets see the same drive from the AOA & the pilot body...
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In the meantime, let me repeat that the new guidelines were designed simply to close a loophole that had resulted in a growing number of crew swapping below the 70 hour minimum guarantee.
A nice "thank you" from management for helping the company out when the sky was falling last year, what a bunch a spineless snakes!
Good on the cabin crew for threatening a "strike over Easter as a last resort" as per the article in the SCMP today!
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Yes they can certainly be of help.
SCMP
Cathay reconsiders attendant swap rule
Cathay Pacific Airways (SEHK: 0293) has suspended a policy restricting the swapping of shifts by flight attendants. The airline said the decision, coming a day after the attendants' union threatened industrial action, was made because it did not want to disrupt the lifestyle of its crew. The policy would have required attendants to work at least 70 hours a month before swapping with colleagues. Austin Chiu
We need to hire one of them to help us. Or be very nice to them and they can threaten CX for our benefit at times. etc...
Anyway well done to them.
You got to nip things in the butt straightaway, unlike us!
Cathay reconsiders attendant swap rule
Cathay Pacific Airways (SEHK: 0293) has suspended a policy restricting the swapping of shifts by flight attendants. The airline said the decision, coming a day after the attendants' union threatened industrial action, was made because it did not want to disrupt the lifestyle of its crew. The policy would have required attendants to work at least 70 hours a month before swapping with colleagues. Austin Chiu
We need to hire one of them to help us. Or be very nice to them and they can threaten CX for our benefit at times. etc...
Anyway well done to them.
You got to nip things in the butt straightaway, unlike us!
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Well done the Cabin Crew, and their union.
They could certainly show us pilots and our union a thing or two.
I seem to remember not long ago being polled by the AOA as to whether we thought the unions should merge, or at least work more closely together....AOA, DPA and FAU. As usual, it was just a poll, nothing at all was ever heard after or ever came of it.
Anyway, good to see at least the CC can stand up for their rights against the school bully. We never will.
They could certainly show us pilots and our union a thing or two.
I seem to remember not long ago being polled by the AOA as to whether we thought the unions should merge, or at least work more closely together....AOA, DPA and FAU. As usual, it was just a poll, nothing at all was ever heard after or ever came of it.
Anyway, good to see at least the CC can stand up for their rights against the school bully. We never will.
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Corrigendum
Mr Management,
:...held to ransom."
English is not your strong suit, eh?
Are you by chance from the Antipodes, or, even worse, one of the older colonies?
:...held to ransom."
English is not your strong suit, eh?
Are you by chance from the Antipodes, or, even worse, one of the older colonies?
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Deluded Imbeciles
You're quite correct Neptunes Rex, the biggest deluded imbeciles are from down under ....
ME!
ME!
Last edited by Capt Toss Parker; 19th Mar 2010 at 14:34.
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Am I missing something?
Tell me if I am missing anything, but the company asking CC to work actual hours they are contracted to before swapping to possibly reduce hours, but not below what they will get paid for....this would seem reasonable. The company I work for requires that I work the full 43 hours per week, yes, per week, not 70 per month. You do the math! What is wrong with a business expecting an employee to actually work for their salary?? In the press cuttings I have seen, it would appear that some unscrupulous crew are swapping regularly to get paid for hours NOT worked. In the real world they would be sacked.
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Blue Eng
Ahhh, Envy...one of the seven deadly sins.
Your response is typical of those who know little, or nothing, of aviation.
The 70 hours worked are flying hours. Factor in another 150 hours for various other time consuming aspects of the job such as admin days, office days, days and nights spent jet-lagged in a hotel room on the other side of the world, eighteen hours minimum rest in a 10 foot by 10 foot cubicle (I mean hotel room) before climbing back on board. Then days spent, back at home, jet-lagged, recovering from, yet another, seemingly endless, flight to the other side of the planet....and you'll find flight crew work far more hours, and spend far more time away from their homes and families than people like you who live in the "real-world" (9 to 5, home every weekend , as well as several hundred official Hong Kong statutory holidays off as well!).
Tell us Blue Eng, what's it feel like to walk around alert and fully rested? What's it feel like to be home every night with your family, or to be able to plan, with certainty, family activities on all those long weekends.....
What’s it feel like to work only 40 hours a week!!!
Ahhh, Envy...one of the seven deadly sins.
Your response is typical of those who know little, or nothing, of aviation.
The 70 hours worked are flying hours. Factor in another 150 hours for various other time consuming aspects of the job such as admin days, office days, days and nights spent jet-lagged in a hotel room on the other side of the world, eighteen hours minimum rest in a 10 foot by 10 foot cubicle (I mean hotel room) before climbing back on board. Then days spent, back at home, jet-lagged, recovering from, yet another, seemingly endless, flight to the other side of the planet....and you'll find flight crew work far more hours, and spend far more time away from their homes and families than people like you who live in the "real-world" (9 to 5, home every weekend , as well as several hundred official Hong Kong statutory holidays off as well!).
Tell us Blue Eng, what's it feel like to walk around alert and fully rested? What's it feel like to be home every night with your family, or to be able to plan, with certainty, family activities on all those long weekends.....
What’s it feel like to work only 40 hours a week!!!
Last edited by raven11; 21st Mar 2010 at 01:10.
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And lets not forget great duties like the MNL or TPE Split. What is it, 13-14 hours duty, for less than 4 hours of flying? We really should be paid something for the duty period as well. And don't get me started on unpaid reserve! 
The main problem I see is, other than cabin crew at simply not paid enough for what they have to do and put up with, is the fact that they have no "lifestyle" choices. They can not request flights (unless they get their one joker request by not calling in sick for the whole year). They can not choose between "compact" and "super compact". They can't even nominate if they want to do heaps of day flights (to allow them to be home with their young children), or lots of longer layovers (so they get more days off afterwards to commute). Not that there are many decent layovers as the base crews see to those (BKK crew doing MEL flights even).
So I completely understand why they are so angry. Wouldn't you be?
The main problem I see is, other than cabin crew at simply not paid enough for what they have to do and put up with, is the fact that they have no "lifestyle" choices. They can not request flights (unless they get their one joker request by not calling in sick for the whole year). They can not choose between "compact" and "super compact". They can't even nominate if they want to do heaps of day flights (to allow them to be home with their young children), or lots of longer layovers (so they get more days off afterwards to commute). Not that there are many decent layovers as the base crews see to those (BKK crew doing MEL flights even).
So I completely understand why they are so angry. Wouldn't you be?
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Flying Hours is NOT equal to Duty Hours. The media has been cleverly exploiting this by publishing numbers that bewilder the ignorant (which unfortunately are the great majority of public) all the time. My own circle of friends use to think it's atrocious that we are that "highly" paid based on the contractual hours that we work.. Till you list all the sacrifices and stresses that they never thought of, and the one thing that I always try to highlight, would be the above fact and we DO NOT work 2 1/2 hours a day on average!!
Management should be graceful enough to know that swaps and flight changes done individually are for good reason. Lowering of one's hours mean upping of another. What's wrong with that if workload is shared willingly, and employees are happy? Well I guess the latter is something that irks the bean counters too much, and I too have forgotten that graciousness is only an academic word during management courses.
Good job there CX cabin crew, proud of you to say the least.
Management should be graceful enough to know that swaps and flight changes done individually are for good reason. Lowering of one's hours mean upping of another. What's wrong with that if workload is shared willingly, and employees are happy? Well I guess the latter is something that irks the bean counters too much, and I too have forgotten that graciousness is only an academic word during management courses.
Good job there CX cabin crew, proud of you to say the least.
