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CHC UK redundancies/strike action/FSP
Extract from BBC website (BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Helicopter firm jobs being lost)
Up to 60 jobs are set to go at an Aberdeen helicopter maintenance firm. Heli-One, a subsidiary of CHC Helicopter Corporation, has been hit by an "industry-wide downturn in activity". The company said it regretted that between 50 and 60 jobs would be affected. The news comes just days after job warnings from industry body Oil and Gas UK and the Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce oil and gas survey. CHC and Heli-one said in a statement: "CHC can confirm that its repair and overhaul division Heli-One commenced a consultation process over proposed redundancies at its base maintenance facility in Aberdeen. "CHC has instigated the process in response to the industry-wide downturn in activity. The proposed redundancies, involving between 50 and 60 members of staff, would reduce personnel levels at the base to the level required for forecast future activity. "CHC very much regrets having to take this measure but it is unavoidable in the present economic climate. The company will now liaise closely with union representatives during the consultation period." The company said it planned to continue to employ about 25 people to provide logistics and design support. |
every cloud has a silver lining.......
Hopefully improve availability of 'onshore' supply of engineers for corporate machines.... |
How has the flying arm of CHC been affected in ABZ ? Will these engineers be taken on by the Line or will they go to Heli-One in Norway ?
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I heard secondhand at the weekend that contract pilots (i.e. not full time pilots) in Aberdeen were being told that their services were no longer required.
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Heli-One closing in March I hear....along with the operation in Hurst, Texas.
That is eighty employees in Aberdeen and one hundred and ten employees in Hurst to be looking for work. |
If they are retaining only support staff then where is CHC Scotias heavy maintenance going to be done?Sounds like British jobs being exported to Norway.
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Every time there is a slight downturn who do they exterminate...the only employees capable of generating real income (Pilots and Engineers). Just for once I would like to see a NS Company make a few shiny arses take it in the back passage instead of the bread-winners.
I can confirm that CHC ABZ are not renewing the monthly contracts for the Contractors on one of the fleets at the moment. Some really good (and I hope they forgive me for saying so - V. SENIOR) gentlemen available for work. Anybody needing v. qualified v. experienced offshore drivers get in touch with CHC ABZ (Or PM me). |
Is there to be anymore slicing and dicing??????:eek: By the New owners.
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This is an absolute bloody disgrace, and appalling way of doing business for all except a few higher level management. This is short term money savings, which is really only going to divert costs to somewhere else. In the short they will save some money on paper in wages. However the redundancy settlement payments will not be cheap if the union does its job properly, and chances are in a years time they will need more engineers again, and start re-hiring and re-training, therefore more cost than they saved. I think we have been here before in the not too distant past. Are lessons really never learnt? Would it not be better to offer to hold people on reduced time until things pick up? Smacks of another FR attempt to boost short term profit margins on paper prior to a quick sell off.
My deepest sympathies to those being royally shafted. |
CHC and Heli-one in Europe has a much bigger Norwegian influence at engineering management level so it goes without saying that the redundancies will be in the UK and not Norway. It means that the maintenance work which would have been done in the UK will now be shipped over to Norway even although their costs are higher.
The UK based engineers working for CHC should be considering industrial action in support of their colleagues in Heli-one. CHC know that these redundancies would not be accepted in Norway so they are taking the easy way out by sacking UK workers. The CHC flying operation in the UK is already very poorly supported by Heli-one due to lack of spares etc and it is going to get worse if this is allowed to go ahead as even more spares are moved from UK to Norway. |
I was just going to ask how many Norwegians would be facing the boot, as I thought get rid of the easy UK boys and make sure the Norwegians are ok.
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Work to Norway
Coalface is quite right, the heavy maintenance work will go to Norway or maybe even Canada, as it has in the past, Boundary Bay has to do something. CHC Scotia is one of the biggest cash generators in the Group but as already has been said, UK workers are easier to get rid of than Norwegian. It has been ever thus since the merger back in 1999.
Some of the Heli-One UK Engineers will readily get work in Stavanger, as Contractors, adding more costs for CHC. But we can't have "Social Dumping" in Norway, can we ? |
Are the sackings just in Scotia or elsewhere in the CHC system too. SASless mentions H1 in Hurst Texas. Anything in den Helder or the Canadian operations - or whatever they call Vancouver now.
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These sackings/redundancies have nothing to do with CHC Scotia, Heli-One ABZ is a seperate company. But will the axe be swinging at Scotia as well, I have heard rumours of contract engineers/pilots already been shown the door ?
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Same knee jerk reaction we got last time there was a down turn in work, 18 months down the line when the oil companies are crying out for machines and flights because they have spooled up the drilling programme there will be a huge shortage. The oil companies complain because they do not seem to realise how long it take to train up engineers and pilots. We are already seeing age balloons that are going to burst because of similar decisions made over the decades.
good luck to all those affected...... |
My advice to any staff facing redundancy would be to contact Eurocopter UK. Rumour has it that they are desperately short of Engineers, yet still have expansion plans for the area.
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North Sea Tiger said;
These sackings/redundancies have nothing to do with CHC Scotia, Heli-One ABZ is a seperate company |
Contractors
I feel for anybody facing redundancy at the moment and it is sad that the short term knee jerk reaction always prevails. Especially when, as has already been said, it's the people who do the core work that get the boot.
However, I have worked alongside many contractors on a higher monthly wage because they are a contractor and because they want to remain so. Some have turned down permanent contracts because of the better flat rate they get as a contractor and because of the 'choice' this gives them to do what they will with their money. In the helicopter world it is often the case that these contract workers are also those who opt out of joining a union. This combination makes it too easy for large companies to 'shed costs' as they put it and get rid of people quickly. That is the nature of contract work. Hopefully when we come out of this economic dip we are in, people who took a hit as a contractor will seek permanent contracts and union membership, which will only strengthen our industry in the long term. Hompy |
ECUK do need extra engineers but as of a month ago they are on a hire-freeze and in the mean time they rely heavily on the worker bees good will to work every hour god sends them if it wasn't for them Oxford would have folded a long time ago.
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"It's got everything to do with CHC Scotia because CHC Scotia is Heli-one (Aberdeen)'s only customer. There can only be one reason for lack of maintenance work and that is a downturn in the flying activities."
Not true, they have had several Norwegian machines and aircraft bound for different locations in there recently so to say CHC Scotia is there only customer is wrong , of there 2-3 lines only 1 was Scotia. Also it will be Heli-one who decided to close down ABZ not CHC Scotia, at the end of the day Scotia will have a/c requiring G-Checks etc, so where are they going to go ? My Moneys on Heli-One Stavangar . |
Brilliant Stuff said;
"they rely heavily on the worker bees good will to work every hour god sends them if it wasn't for them Oxford would have folded a long time ago". I've heard this said elsewhere. Why are the engineers prepared to put up with it? Is ECUK pay so low that engineers need all the extra overtime? |
Redundancies?
Have heard this evening CHC Scotia are facing a productivity review. Seems to be targeted at the operational side. As stated previously, this is where money is made.
Surely a proper review will assess what operational assets are required (Helo/Engineer/Pilot numbers), then move up a level to supervisory staff, then find the minimum number of middle managers needed and then consider the higher managements levels. Or on the other hand you could create more management positions to oversee a reduction in cash generating assets. How will CHC do it? Answers on a postcard please. |
If the CHC group wants to save money they should take a long hard look at the monster they created in the form of Heli-One.
Having them as our ONLY supplier worldwide was a questionable idea but having them also as a third party vendor robs the bases of spares that should be on the shelves instead of being sold for much needed cash. |
Where is the money made
:confused:Deltafree:
Have heard this evening CHC Scotia are facing a productivity review. Seems to be targeted at the operational side. As stated previously, this is where money is made. Chc Helikopter Service As - 51941000 - Stavanger Lufthavn Heli-One (norway) As - 51941400 - Stavanger Lufthavn Here is the result from Norway atleast, all shown in Norwegian krone: CHC Helikopter Service AS Result 2006 - 63561000 2007 - 88752000 2008 - 50567000 Heli-One Norway AS Result 2006 + 145184000 2007 + 142092000 2008 Not ready So......... where is the money made??????????? |
I would imagine that they will increase management numbers :confused: to look at how they can cut pilot and engineer numbers, :* in turn saving the required £xxmillion immediately and the £xxxmillion over the next year.
It's all very well saying lets have a immediate salary freeze, but to expand management positions just doesn't make sense. Let's hope people stay employed but on a fair basis. |
Where IS the money made?
Dear HeliOil,
Not sure what your point is! The money is made by "Helos/Engineers/Pilots", as I suggested, whether it be Scotland, England, Norway, Denmark or anywhere else in the world these are the assets that do the work! Any review should be looking at the costs of support/management. Not sure why you quote HeliOne and HS. Though Helione money is often made at huge expense to the aircrsft operator. CHC Scotia at least are tied in to very expensive support from HeliOne, and have ac AOG more often than is economically sensible. Scotia, HS and HeliOne are all part of the same thing. If they want to exchange money at ridiculous rates for tax benefits that is fine. But when operations suffer due to lack of spares and customers are let down there can be no excuse. When CHC lose contracts and have to make cut backs everybody loses. |
Go figure, 2005 is an interesting year...
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Heli-one
Hi Northseespray
Where do the leasing part og Heli-one have there inncome from. As far as I can see there is only two aircrafts on the Norwegian registry that is owned by Heli-One Leasing ??????? All the new machines in the group are laesed from others, and i guess the 61`s are out of the system???? |
Since the one stop shop of Heli-one has been on the seen it should be ...Heli-none...
No spares, No support ,No idea. HSI, EC or Bell may have the part on the shelf but Heli-none won't have and can't seem to get it for you!! |
"Where do the leasing part og Heli-one have there inncome from. As far as I can see there is only two aircrafts on the Norwegian registry that is owned by Heli-One Leasing ???????"
Well, try to count all the L2's and S-92's in this lovely picture..... Airport Operations |
Just back to the question in hand, are the perm guys at the bases UK CHC safe?
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I think this situation may also have something to do with funding through CHC which is owned by a US Investement bank which is on it's knees. I think they have to strip costs and quickly.
Heard some airframes going to Australia.......? |
Northseespray
There is a lot of 92`s and L2`s. As far as I can see they are not ovned by Heli-One but of several banks and other financial institutions. So the question remains the same: where are the A/C that creates the money in Heli-One????? |
Rockape403
I think this situation may also have something to do with funding through CHC which is owned by a US Investement bank which is on it's knees |
CHC Global Ops, CHC Scotia, Australia et al all are tied into lease agreements with Heli One for the operational aircraft. H1 in turn owns some and leases others in from the banks/companies that own them.
Then the operators (CHC) are tied into an exclusive support contract with H1 for spares backup, which is where the hassle to the operating groups comes in because H1 also has 3rd party contracts with various companies to supply spares and overhaul and the CHC operations seem to be getting shortchanged for spares at the expense of the 3rd party customenrs who bring in the cash. Within the CHC/H1 system it's all a paperwork exercise that the beancounters squabble over among themselves. |
Productivity Review
Seems Bond have found a novel way of reducing aircraft numbers. Fortunately customer numbers have not been reduced, and from my point of view, luckily the pilots numbers remain the same. I wonder if the Bean Counters share my opinion. Don't tell CHC that Bond are trialling this system.
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The buggers at First Reserve have no idea what they are doing.
15 technical positions made redundant as of Monday 16th Feb. Not looking good, as rumour has it more to come. Pretty soon Heli-One will become Heli-None. |
I'm not sure what's happening here but a number of my posts just disappear for no apparent reason.
Mods, if you remove posts, any chance of sending a PM to explain why or what you disagree with? I posted that CHC now looking for voluntary redundancies. Uk and Ireland. Is that out of bounds? |
This sounds to me as if the "new" owners have sat and watched and are now taking a knife to surgically remove the "deadwood". Lucky for them the time coincides with an economic downturn, so they can blame it on that rather than simple brutal business.
There are few companies who are run by people who have an intuitive feel for the industry, just a gut feel on numbers and how they affect their bonuses. |
L1 and L2 contract pilots have/are gone/going, although the news of voluntary redundancies is news. That's about 14 pilots less so far, any ideas how many more they are looking for?
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