True, they violated people's privacy in a coward way and terminated all those that were in private whatsapp groups, some of them didn't even write in the group but since they were admin, they were fired without appeal. The official excuse was of course Covid19.As expected, some friends of friends managed to escape the penalty, typical QR style.
For the same reason, as an excuse, they made redundant some of the best instructors they had, more than 10 years seniority, just because they were talking politely about the new contract.
This is the dictator way to scare employees and to silence every rumor at the same time, it worked perfectly, no whatsapp groups anymore, people even removed their profile picture in their private whatsapp, now tell me if this is normal.

All of them? I was in one of them and still haven’t been called back.

More like they made them redondant because of the 10 years + seniority ?

absolutely not, they were suspended without pay then sacked unfortunately, the 10years seniority usually doesn’t apply to TRI TRE, let’s say they chose who they wanted.

I confirm... I know one of the guys from Italy. Never had any problems in 9 years..his only '' mistake'' was being one of the admins of a WhatsApp group. Apparently one of the higher managers chose to save all his friends in the group even tho they were more guilty than the people that got terminated.

This is crazy .....

This was till July 24th, 2020, and I'm only counting captain. I was terminated on August 28th. Yes, they have terminated 500 pilots at least including the first officer positions.

They forced me to use vacation during summer and I was stuck in Doha and in my final settlement, my annual leave balance was zero so 42 days of vacation pay is gone. that's almost 15k.

sorry for you.......:ugh: all the best.

any update? is it over yet? In limbo for weeks now ...

Even some relatives of important relatives are safe and batch buddies of prominent batch buddies sleep easy nights. Some have been even called back from redundancy... amazing, ain’t it?

Real relatives (soon on A350), many of us know, soon everybody else will know hopefully, not to mention selected friends spared from the whatsapp punishment.
Be patient everything will come out big time and interesting things will hit the media as well, some guys didn't take it very well I've heard.

And so they shouldn't. Time to expose the selected friends and a$$ kissers .way to many good guys chopped with zero justification
​​​​​​

Jack330

The funny part is they also gave me overtime payment for this year on my last settlements. I have flown every month over 75 hours in 15 days and they gave me 15 days mandatory vacation.(A350 Captain)

BTW, the soon to be 350 relative has been enjoying a big fat warming letter up until may, but there he is, safe and sound... talk about some luck, would ya?

They make us work full time during COVID and fly back and forth to the United States and staying in the public hotels and then meet our families with possibilities of having Corona.

Anyone entering Qatar needs to be quarantined for 14 days except the crews since the crew's health does not matter.

Hopefully, there will be justice.

mmorel

What justice do you seek? All airline pilots that are working are subject to exactly the same working conditions.

Silver , I don't think so mate ! Where are you working ? ME working conditions can not be compared to western world working conditions.

Fatbus.
Just to clarify, I was referring to the fact that any long haul pilots still operating, are subject to the same process regarding 'public' hotels and avoiding quarantine on return. With that in mind, I was just wondering what justice mmorel sought from Qatar.

The subject of ME working conditions is something I am well aware of (7 years experience), and I would never suggest that any of the ME three were on a parr with a major carrier in countries such as USA, UK, Europe etc.

They made me work for 80 hours per month during FEB-AUG and then they terminated my contract and ask me to move back to my country, I can assure you that I have flown more hours during COVID than last year. That's not fair.

1. Regarding the ISP pension plan, They also cheated on us, they gave us 90 days of payment but they only included the amount on old EOS which is for someone over 5 years is 28 days but for ISP is 36.5 days so $3500 less payment.

Silver68

Not when you have a CEO who believed that the virus didn't exist ...This is what he said
“During the incubation period, they say that this virus can be transmitted. There is no scientific evidence for that. It is just, you know, a fear factor,”

From March to June Pilots and CC carried on normal OPS without any pre-flight temperature checks, tampon tests ecc ecc ...exposing everyone (crew and families) at high-risk.
Most of the airlines around stopped operations or tested Staff before and after each flight.

mmorel

Guys, just to be clear; i was referring to the above post specifically. I'm not justifying or arguing against any of the points you raise. I am simply pointing out that many airlines are still operating internationally, even if at a reduced capacity. All pilots and cabin crew have to stay in hotels and then return to base and ultimately their families, thus putting family members at risk. With that said, I was merely asking what sort of justice would you be looking for?

CDRW
 

You're obviously missing the point or choosing to miss the point. You fixate on Britain and British passengers and then seek to justify Qatar moving these 'rescued' untested, corralled and ripped off passengers.

It wasn't just Britain but Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia to name but a few. In the months before pre flight PCR testing and other necessary countermeasures, most carriers had radically reduced flights. Many including EK and EY ceased operating pax flights. Colleagues and I watched FR24 in disbelief as day and night in otherwise empty skies, lines Qatar passenger aircraft streamed out of Doha and into, well, everywhere, disgorging infected passengers into major cities. Were the pax thankful? Yes if they were unscathed. But although inconvenient it would have been far safer for most to stay put until countermeasures were in place. But no, not QR; with the CEO declaring it was safe, your 'rescue' flights did their work and seeing the lack of competition, ramped up the prices to profiteer.

Should the governments have intervened? Many did, and those countries had a miniscule death toll by comparison. The passengers themselves can't be blamed; if a flight was made available the layman would assume it was safe and if necessary, travel. I'm not unique in these criticisms. It has been featured in the media, many colleagues hold the same view plus even your own staff made a hilarious parody of a QR commercial highlighting the same. It was a disastrous decision to operate at that intensity at that time. I don't blame the pilots and crew as they were doing their jobs and hey, its the middle east. But to defend the actual company decision shows blind allegiance, lack of empathy and a failure to grasp the wider issue.

Although a competitor, QR have an excellent product (I'm told). I have no axe to grind generally, just this issue which cost lives.
Your jibe about 'You a QR applicant failure, perhaps?' was uncalled for and low. I never needed to apply, but I can tell you that over the years I've had a procession of ex QR FOs and Cabin Crew in the cockpit, all delighted to be out. So apply? I don't think so. So sit down, have a little think, and then get back to me in your ghastliest Level 4 English. There'll be no reply from me. Topic highlighted.

Stay safe everyone

I totally agree with you.

Come on!! A warning letter is nothing compared to Whatsapp groups ;)

Planeur is correct in what he says, I remember all this to be what happened and had a friend that used QR to get back from SE Asia and they were relieved to get back just before the UK lockdown started. Sad fact that modern air travel spreads the virus successfully to the four corners of the earth and rapidly. That's why the richer economies suffered the worst in the beginning of the pandemic due to being well connected. The CEO's comments at the time were just ill informed rubbish he'd do better to keep his comments to himself than come out with such drivel. As to the whatsapp redundancy that just beggars belief that a company would use that as a method to select people for redundancy.

Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening.

That is exactly what happened, most probably this username belongs to a troll from the company.
They violated people's privacy by looking and even sharing screenshots sent by some coward and called more than 100 pilots in the office, shouted at them, suspended many without pay, left them there stuck in doha for almost a month then made them redundand usid the covid excuse to cover up the nazi style elimination. I know some of the guys who left the company, they did absolutely nothing, excellent pilots, no letters, nothing, hard workers, now they can finally make space for their below average pilots, including their friends and even relatives of the manager in flight ops and I'm not only talking about Qatari guys.

There are quite a few Honored and Proud to be working in this ....outfit:)

Very sad and unfair
 

Jack330

Very sad and unfair

Top manager saved his Friends this is crazy. I hope AB wakes up...

Very typical ME and associated Sub continent management types ! QR is the worst , but EK same same .

indeed Fatbus
It’s like EK and QR try to outdo each other.
Did you see the list of guys who were kicked out @ EK ranked by seniority?
It certainly seems that TCB made sure that all his buddies remained on inboard.
i coudn’t believe the rumor, until i saw the spreadsheet myself...some strange gaps in the list...
And no we’re not talking about the locals who ofcourse stay onboard and live in a different galaxy.
zero work but full pay.....

The manager in question is not a local, he's from europe ! I'm not sure that AB knows the dirty things they're doing or maybe he does... The other news is that the company is not paying the redundant guys their final settlement money, at least not to the guys that were in the ISP Zurich program, more than two months wasted waiting for the money, no reply to phone calls or email as well, just wait and pray, this is shameful, far away from the "five star" image they're trying to show.

I’m still waiting for my final settlement two months after getting home. I’ve emailed numerous times and am now getting really short of cash. Very disappointing.

Same story here. No reply from HR to my daily email.

I took for granted that they would keep their end of the bargain. I hope I wasn’t too “naive”.

I am sure that in EK the locals don't become fleet managers after landing in unstable conditions..But guess what?? They do in QR only because they are locals;)

ps The F/o got a warning

They are probably busy checking out WhatsApp groups...

So true. I was part of the Whatsapp group too and I was not active in the group. Maybe that's why my contract was terminated. I think Flight crews need to create their own Union so Qatar Airways could not dictate what they want. Without Union, they can terminate anyone's contract and all other flight crews won't care as long as they are still employed. They don't understand that at some point this might happen to them as well.

Corona taught me a lesson about Qatar Airways. It's the best airline when they need a pilot and it can be a worse airline when they don't need you.

I always thought other airlines such as American airlines, etc are worse compare to Qatar as they do not offer business class tickets, Worldwide medical coverage, etc but I changed my mind now.

Good luck everyone.

It won't happen, due to the principle of the prisoners dilemma. Which basically states that individuals in a group will not choose the optimum outcome for the group due to fear of non compliance by the other members.

That’s not at all accurate. Pretty much all US airlines offer world wide medical coverage and FREE/zero cost unlimited (space available) travel in highest class open. They just don’t offer “confirmed” J class.

motel

think you’ll find that trade unions are illegal in all of the middle eastern countries...... everyone knows this when they sign up though..... it’s always a trade off - better money, quicker progression, and a chance to show the ritzy life and travels to folks back home.

everyone has different reasons for being in the Middle East, and for a lot of folks it works, but it has always been clear that those folks who have waited patiently in line at legacy carriers will be looked after much better than those who rolled the quick win dice in the Middle East. That’s not to say there aren’t legacy Carrier guys who are suffering, but strong IR law and strong unions are still a good hundred years away in the desert.

i am truly sorry that your journey has come to an end though and I hope you and everyone else in this terrible situation manages to find a way back into the sky soon!

Just a new update from a friend, one of the whatsapp victims, he was made redundant at the beginning of July then suspended and kept without ANY communication and NO salary for more than a month in the accomodation, today, September 6 he's still waiting for his final settlement money, this is the way qatar airways treats ex employees, I would say a five star treatment, amazing right ? Considering that those guys went flying during their days off or while on leave just to help the company during the covid issue, congratulations Qatar Airways, you are truly a five star airline