next time crew control calls me on a day off telling me they're "desperate", i have to consider them liars. or would it eventually be the old brit lying?
at least my choice is quickly made: no to cc and yes concerning tcas.

Emirates overtime
 

I've seen many posts urging people not to fly on their days off and to refuse overtime. Yet, I've also seen nearly as many talking about manual insertion of trips and forced overtime. Can anyone clarify? Is there actually any choice at Emirates about accepting overtime or not? :confused:
Many thanks

No Choice as My roster was built to exceed 90 hours stick time or in excess 110 duty:sad: :zzz:

I think a bit of clarification is in order:
You are contracted to work to 76 flying hrs pcm (depending how long the month is ie 31 day month is 78hrs).
Any hours you do over this are regarded as over time.
You may well be (and often will be) ROSTERED to fly into over time for which you will be paid 315dhs (85$) per hour for F/O and 460dhs (125$) for Capt (I think?).
However, once you have your roster, you are not OBLIGED to accept any more duty/flying, although you can be phoned on a day off and asked (as is the norm in most companies). If you are not hitting overtime or cant be bothered, just say NO, if you want to do it because you're a bit skint that month, say YES please, and make sure you also get your day off payment!
Nothing sinister about it all, but put simply you have no choice in accepting overtime in your allocated roster, but you do once the roster has been issued!
Hope this helps?

Oblaaspop & Dusty
 

Oh, I see. That does help set things straight. Thanks very much for your post, I appreciate it.

Bad luck Dusty - looks like the 777's taking the heat now. Don't know about the other 'bus guys but 60 hrs this month (block) and 60 for Feb... Bit of a change from 2006:ok: :}

sonoma

I hope you're not implying that by refusing to work on a day off when called by crewing will result in life becoming less tolerable. My days off are precious to me and I have received no backlash for not working. Refusing to do so could hardly be described as 'messing' with them. Refuse politely if you'd rather not, say yes if you want to. the choice is yours and yours alone. Never feel pressured to say yes := . Regardless of which seat you're sat in!

Regards

BYMONEK

I don't want to burst your bubble, BYMONEK, but a friend of mine tried to politely decline a flight on a day off a while back and was told by Crew Control that they would be obliged to make a note of it and that it WOULD be brought up at his upgrade interview. Needless to say he agreed to do the flight.

SM

SM,
I do not believe that happened to your 'friend'! If he caved in on an issue like that he doesn't deserve to be upgraded!

Well I have to say it sound like complete bollox...Also coming up for upgrade and have politely declined Crew Controls request, they have even said thanks and sorry for disturbing me before hanging up..:ouch:

Anyone working on a day off the the ridiculous amount of money offered is selling themselves cheaply and doing the rest of us a grave disservice.
If you work on a day off in return for getting rid of another less desirable flight that is another matter entirely and using the system to your advantage. It still leaves the other less desirable other flight unmanned

Working on a day off is like littering. You get rid of your own rubbish but the whole place becomes unpleasant.

sonoma, snake man,

About 6 months ago I had the pleasure to meet one of the crew controllers. This person told me that they don't like calling people on their days off, but they have to. WHen I asked if any notes were kept on refusals to fly on a day off, it was a clear NO! This person actually told me that the crewing people rather hear a 'No, I'm not interested' instead of the usual 'I just opened a beer' or whatever other lame excuse people come up with...

Personally I don't fly on days off (I do help them out when they ask me to do other flights instead of the one I'm doing, as long as it is on rostered working days), and I never had a bad experience with crewing.

So snake man, either your friend is telling you a heap of b*llsh1t, or he refused a legal change of duty (they CAN re-roster you in certain cases, e.g. change of equipment, training requirements,... )

MR8

MR8, I agree. The guys in the rostering/crewing office are not our enemies, au contraire mon commandant. The enemy farts on higher levels.

Seem to recall a few years (4-5) ago one particular roster lady changing rosters to stop people going into productivity and so save the company money.
For example, one guy who had successfully bid for a Manchester layover to go visit his family had it changed to a local turnaround two days before the flight. And the reason he was going into productivity was because he had agreed to do an extra flight earlier in the month.
This was back in the days when the company had enough pilots to do the job.
Guess that the reason the company now doesn't have enough pilots to do the job is a result of events like the above. Reap what you sow etc.
Said roster lady, who seemed to have a monopoly on that particular trick (maybe she was on 10%) has recently been promoted to a Flight Ops management position. Presumably a reward for her innovative rostering techniques.

Work on a day off? No thanks, not even for Dhs4000 a day! They're far too valuable these days. Some of us cannot be bought.

dadster
 

Forgive me....is there a more specific FCN out re. new pay and if so ....where can I find it??

Found the above piece in the depths of this thread, its dated October 2004.

The author resigned around a year ago................... to go back to the UK.

Enuff said.

Leave allocation
 

I see on the portal that secondary leave has been allocated and LRE is proud to make the statement that nearly everyone got 30 days. So by my calculation at around 1600 pilots still having 12 days leave owing, there is a shortfall of around 19200 days of leave. That would indicate we are around 60 pilots short. That isn't a huge number, but given that we are falling short on recruiting and the airline is getting bigger, those stats are not going to get any better any time soon.

Another reason not to work on a day off

The Idler
Pontious is a good friend of mine, we joined Emirates together, and we left within 8 months of each other. both of us are back in the UK and loving every minute of it. Life in Dubai was a living hell,its only plus point was the sun, not a good enough reason to stay.
I'm not sure what point you are trying to put across. Everyone who joins this crap outfit has rose tinted glasses for about 6 months, then reality sinks in, and there is a dire need to escape.
All I can say,is that there is life after Emirates, and it is better than the !!!! they dish out.
All the best to those that can stick it out, and the poor souls that are about to join.
Cheers