Hard times for Norwegian

[BehindBlueEyes]

https://www.travelweekly.co.uk/artic...gian-air-board

Former Tui and EasyJet Director? I’m hoping this might be an indication of something positive.

[737 Jockey]

I think you’re alluding to the redundancies of Red (ground) handling staff at LGW. With LGW ops currently not forecast to restart until April 2021 for Norwegian, it was obviously felt unsustainable to retain staff until then.

sad times.

[Joe le Taxi]

So they're paying one month's notice - were the pilots contracted to one month's notice or three (when they resign)? - if it's three, I believe you can sue them for three months pay, as I was told an unequal notice contract is illegal.

[737 Jockey]

This is relating to the 87 Long Haul Pilots being made redundant from Rishworth/Global Crew UK. BALPA is pushing the agency to do the right thing, having ‘appeared’ to have taken advantage of the temporary change in terms & conditions in order to qualify for the U.K. government JRS.

[Kirks gusset]

As far as the UK employment laws go:

Notice periods

You must be given a notice period before your employment ends.

The statutory redundancy notice periods are:

• at least one week’s notice if employed between one month and 2 years
• one week’s notice for each year if employed between 2 and 12 years
• 12 weeks’ notice if employed for 12 years or more

Check your contract. Your employer may give you more than the statutory minimum, but they cannot give you less.

The "agency" cannot claim back the redundancy payments vis the UK JRS, therefore they will try and keep it to the minimum they think they can get away with. Sadly, the furlough payments will end for the crews.

[Smooth Airperator]

They got that angled nice and covered too. Even if the NP was 3 months either way, they would just go ahead and shut shop, claiming insolvency as Norwegian was their sole client, without which they have no income.

[flyboy146]

Originally Posted by RudderTrimZero

Pilots included.

no they are not. Don’t spin out utter BS, times are hard enough.

[uncle-traveling-matt]

“There is no doubt that leisure traffic will rebound before business travel and we will be perfectly placed to strategically and geographically take advantage of this,” Chief Executive Jacob Schram said in a statement.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-he...-idUKKBN23G1S7

[BehindBlueEyes]

Optimistic and bullish quote from Jacob Schram when Norwegian have effectively dispensed with all their crew. I wondered if they were keeping half an eye on what the other airlines would do, which is understandable, but if they've got no one to actually fly the aircraft, NAI are surely already dead in the water?

[Vokes55]

Nobody to fly the aircraft? Have you been living under a rock for the past four months?

Even if they had "dispensed with all their crew", which they haven't, it's not going to be hard to find pilots to fly the aircraft.

[maxpeck]

Pretty much, just the Norwegian based people left.

[BehindBlueEyes]

Originally Posted by Vokes55

Nobody to fly the aircraft? Have you been living under a rock for the past four months?

Even if they had "dispensed with all their crew", which they haven't, it's not going to be hard to find pilots to fly the aircraft.

Having a close relative flying for them, I can assure you the crew “have been dispensed with” They’ve been asked to return uniforms and passes, so that’s a pretty final statement.

If NAI hope to start flying again soon, it’ll be a pretty major undertaking to recruit, train and update licenses for new flight crew, let alone the time implications. Particularly illogical when they have let go an existing team who could have been available at a short notice.

[737 Jockey]

I can assure you that no one in the U.K. has returned any uniform or I.D.’s - it was mentioned in a Workplace post on May 5th, but never followed through. Ex colleagues (for now) in ARN & CPH bases have handed back said items which have been tagged and put into storage for ‘Ron. Due to the A-typical employment method, Norwegian crew are all in limbo, receiving JRS, but not knowing if we’ll return to flying or be made redundant? BALPA and OSM UK are working together for the best Possible outcome, with limited information coming from Norwegian.

[BehindBlueEyes]

Sadly, this relative is at a Spanish base so SEPLA are fighting for a fair outcome from NAI.

[737 Jockey]

Fair play. Norwegian are going to learn the hard way, that they can’t treat people this way. It is clear as day, that Norwegian is the employer in all regions; Spain, U.K. Finland etc.

[BehindBlueEyes]

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-he...-idUKKBN23L09V

And abandoning quarantine too.

Norwegian might be needing those crew members after all, if it’s not going to be left standing.

[flyboy146]

I am very well aware that GCUK have made redundancies. You’ve been totally shafted by them and their approach to redundancy package (or lack of) you have nothing but my sympathy.

You clearly implied all UK pilots have been made redundant which as you well know is BS. All of the Norwegian/OSM UK Crew are still employed.

Let’s not get into username slagging. PPRUNE is largely full of detritus threads as it is.

[calypso]

Nobody to fly the aircraft? Have you been living under a rock for the past four months?

Even if they had "dispensed with all their crew", which they haven't, it's not going to be hard to find pilots to fly the aircraft.

I think that is a common misconception by those not familiar with this industry. An airline is not Mcdonalds. Even if the labour market is awash with pilots you still need to recruit them, select them and train them. That takes plenty of time and money. All crew have to undergo an OCC course which takes a minimum of 5 sims and 2 weeks of different courses, after that you need to put them through line training. For all of that you will need an army of Examiners, Sim instructors, Line trainers and ground trainers. Even with a fully oiled training system running at full capacity hiring the thousands of pilots needed to run a 120 aircraft fleet will take over a year and cost many tens of millions. If your training department has been dismantled or much diminished you will need to first hire and train the trainers which will take considerably longer and cost even more.

Recruitment of pilots cannot be rushed for many logistical and regulatory reasons but putting that to the side taking the "wrong" sort will cost the company even more in the medium to long run with potentially decades of additional training, additional operational costs, damaged equipment, avoidable delays, avoidable cancelations , poor customer service, etc etc. Not to mention that if you mess up your hiring at macdonalds you end up with a burnt burger in an airline you can end up with a big hole in the ground. Given the numbers involved recruiting some bad apples is probably unavoidable so the question is how many and how bad, how much do I rush the recruitment so the risk is still manageable. Bad as that is recruiting a bad trainer can give you dozens of bad apples. How many trainers are you willing to just push through untested?

So finding pilots won't be "hard" but finding the right pilots and getting to the point where they are available to fly the line will be a lengthy and costly process that will require a very significant logistical and operational effort.

[Vokes55]

Well you just wasted precious minutes of your life that you won’t get back, I’m well aware of the logistics of pilot recruitment, thanks.

The point is 1. Norwegian still have the majority of pilots employed and 2. There is going to be a huge global supply of qualified pilots without notice periods that could start the following day if required (but most likely won’t be because of point 1).

[calypso]

Don't worry about it. I have plenty of time... Judging by your point 2 you still dot get it though