Wizz Air announces 1,000 redundancies as it cuts 19% of workforce

[truckflyer]

Originally Posted by TBSC

No you don't. For other things with your own bosses you might (no clue) but nothing like that in OCC at all. Dispatchers couldn't care less, they just move on to the next call.

Nope, it was like that before. Also you can see from the document regarding the guidance for making people redundant, and one of the points there was regarding working or not working on days off.

I can back up my statement on this, when you call crewing 3-4 months after refusing to working on a day off, and they remind you that they would like to help you out, like you helped them out 3-4 months earlier when you refused to work on a day off.

[samca]

Originally Posted by TBSC

No you don't. For other things with your own bosses you might (no clue) but nothing like that in OCC at all. Dispatchers couldn't care less, they just move on to the next call.

anyway there is no point to put people on a blacklist if they don’t want to work on their days off. And also it wouldn’t be fair to say that this pilots “performances” or whatever they want to call it are worst than other...

[PilotLZ]

There's no black and white way of quantifying a pilot's performance. Even something like number of FDM events per 100 hours cannot be an adequate measure of how well is said pilot doing his job as each and every event needs to be considered in context. When there are hundreds and thousands of pilots to consider, nobody will waste time analysing their flight history bit by bit. They will be looking for something that is more or less on the surface. Did you refuse to cooperate in a schedule revision? Did you use strategic sick leave to bridge blocks of days OFF? Were you involved in some trouble? Were there any reports concerning misconduct on your part? Did you fail a checkride some time ago? Did you try to set up some informal union or were you openly critical of the management? There you go... I've personally seen that happen in other carriers and I've heard stories of colleagues having experienced it in other carriers. You might be very good at flying planes, but if you piss off the wrong people, your going will be a matter of when, not of if.

[brushcounsel]

Originally Posted by dirk85

Wizzair standard is higher than people make it here, and judging by the number of people hired by other companies such as easyJe, BA or similar training managers tend to agree.

It is high, however the people which move to EZY, BA, etc. aren't the people who are topic of this discussion. Just because most FOs are sharp and good enough to move to greener grass, doesn't mean anything in this context.

Smaller companies, especially in eastern Europe, but not only, are in my experience far worse under many aspects

Wizz Air should be benchmarking themselves towards other larger players in Europe, not some mom-and-pop corrupt shop in the East.

[truckflyer]

I can recall sometimes they would start calling on a day off, non duty day, they would start calling 6 - 7 hours into rest time, if this wasn't replied you would start getting SMS messages and emails. I know of at least a couple of times this would go on all day, as they was desperate to get someone for a duty with missing crews.

This was breach of FTL's, but they did not care, this was repeated occurrence.

And they would offer you 30 Euros, which was equal 1 sector as compensation.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

In the end when people were leaving in droves, I remember they got so desperate they offered a guy 150 Euros, which still was was a pittance to work on your off day, but he also got the OFF day given back, which shows how much they moved from offering nothing, to at least doing something.

Back on topic though, my understanding from people in the know, it was left to the base Captains who that was let go.
If there was some wrong doing with regards to the letter of the law, let's hope the people who lost their jobs get the correct legal help and advice.

[TBSC]

Originally Posted by truckflyer

Nope, it was like that before. Also you can see from the document regarding the guidance for making people redundant, and one of the points there was regarding working or not working on days off. I can back up my statement on this, when you call crewing 3-4 months after refusing to working on a day off, and they remind you that they would like to help you out, like you helped them out 3-4 months earlier when you refused to work on a day off.

Again, there is no blacklist in OCC. It's one of the numerous Bravo Sierra things the crew believe without having the slightest clue how the OCC is working aside of rumours heard on galley FM. BC/BMs might have their personal list (number of days flown on off days, "strategic sickness" as someone mentioned can be checked in AIMS quite easily without any blacklist), no clue, not interested either, I was talking about OCC. Fake sickness-reporters, dodgers, notorious oversleepers, CRM-kings, "somehow I lost the flight plan/journey log/gendec" type of colleagues etc. are remembered though. If you were remembered by name 3-4 months later...
They never offered anyone 150 EUR for sure. Someone might demanded that amount and got lucky but dispatchers never "offered" such amount (and even this was a long time ago, it's stritcly limited for years now).

[dirk85]

Funny enough in my time in Wizzair I was never called on my days off. I might have seen maybe couple of missed calls from ops, but I am notoriously slow to answer the phone. I know in Romania it was a different story.
To be fair I was called 2 times only from standbies in 2 years, while in my current employer I get called 50% of the times, despite running a slightly higher crew ratio. Never understood why.

[truckflyer]

Originally Posted by TBSC

Again, there is no blacklist in OCC. It's one of the numerous Bravo Sierra things the crew believe without having the slightest clue how the OCC is working aside of rumours heard on galley FM. BC/BMs might have their personal list (number of days flown on off days, "strategic sickness" as someone mentioned can be checked in AIMS quite easily without any blacklist), no clue, not interested either, I was talking about OCC. Fake sickness-reporters, dodgers, notorious oversleepers, CRM-kings, "somehow I lost the flight plan/journey log/gendec" type of colleagues etc. are remembered though. If you were remembered by name 3-4 months later...
They never offered anyone 150 EUR for sure. Someone might demanded that amount and got lucky but dispatchers never "offered" such amount (and even this was a long time ago, it's stritcly limited for years now).

You mean like those non existing fatigue reports.

Not sure how long you worked for the company, but this is the way it worked.
Also regarding the Day Off payment, it's quite disgraceful that they don't offer proper pay for this, the 150 EUR was a one off, and even that amount is a pittance, than again some are happy to not value their OFF day.
Let's not forget the amazing leave system, where you don't get credit for your OFF days. Like in all other normal companies.

[RexBanner]

Originally Posted by dirk85

To be fair I was called 2 times only from standbies in 2 years, while in my current employer I get called 50% of the times, despite running a slightly higher crew ratio. Never understood why.

Because there’s no sick pay in Wizz plus the double whammy of also losing your sector pay. Hence the amount of people in Wizz you used to see coming in with streaming colds.

[Eurowest]

So how much is Wizz paying for their FO/CPT who decide to use their day off to work?

Even in my smaller airline our FOs get minimum of 200 euros up to 600 for night shift. That's not including the basic hour pay plus extras.

[truckflyer]

Originally Posted by dirk85

Funny enough in my time in Wizzair I was never called on my days off. I might have seen maybe couple of missed calls from ops, but I am notoriously slow to answer the phone. I know in Romania it was a different story.
To be fair I was called 2 times only from standbies in 2 years, while in my current employer I get called 50% of the times, despite running a slightly higher crew ratio. Never understood why.

Small base with few aircraft, everyone knows that if you report fatigue more than 2-3 times a year, you will be invited for a meeting in BUD. I can honestly not recall a single person ever reporting fatigue.
As for those calls on Days Off, they did happen, sometimes to go to other bases, or return from Days Off early to do duty as the base was constantly under crewed.

As for reporting "sick", that was the only way to report fatigue, and the company made money on that, because they deducted your salary for your sick day.

[dirk85]

I called fatigue three or four times in 24 months and never had the pleasure to fly to Budapest for any meeting. As for the sick pay a lot changed whether you were on Confair or local contract, I called sick maybe once and I don't recall any deduction, but then again one day of base salary would have made almost no difference on a normal salary so I might not have noticed anyway.
Despite flying less hours and having more days off and hp days I am far more fatigued in my orange airline than I ever was in Wizz, probably due to the higher number of sectors and busier airports. Or me getting older maybe.
The number of fatigue reports are not comparable also for another reason, especially on the cabin crew side: the work ethic in Eastern Europe was definitely different than here in my experience, and before you mention the fear of losing on salary, a UK easyJet cabin crew struggle to make ends meet more than a RIX or VNO Wizzair cabin crew, given the slavery kind of money they all get in both companies and the relative cost of life.

[Flying Clog]

This bottom feeding airline sounds like a cockroach that refuses to die.

[BarryMG]

Gyus, let's not spread misinformation here.
First of all - the bonus for flying from OFF is currently around 60/100/200 EUR for FO/SFO/CPT respectively. So 150EUR for flying from off is nothing special.
Second - if you are on local contract, you get all the sick pays etc. as per the local law. So don't blame the company, blame the local NHS. If you're on Confair, YOU are responsible for paying taxes, health insurance etc. wherever you seem appropriate. So again, if you don't get a proper sick pay, blame either your NHS wherever you're paying taxes, or blame yourself for dodging payments. Also nobody forces anybody to go on Confair, you can always go local and get proper health insurance.

I'm not saying Wizz is perfect, far from it - but at least please get the facts straight.

[PilotLZ]

And let's not forget that in the region where most Wizz air operations take place there are loads and loads of other airlines, mostly small and not widely known, which do not pay any extra for working on what has initially been designated as a day off. You simply get a roster revision and you either take it as read or face the ugly consequences. So, on the grand scheme of things in that part of the world, a €60 bonus for working on a day off is not a bad offer.

[truckflyer]

Originally Posted by BarryMG

Gyus, let's not spread misinformation here.
First of all - the bonus for flying from OFF is currently around 60/100/200 EUR for FO/SFO/CPT respectively. So 150EUR for flying from off is nothing special.
Second - if you are on local contract, you get all the sick pays etc. as per the local law. So don't blame the company, blame the local NHS. If you're on Confair, YOU are responsible for paying taxes, health insurance etc. wherever you seem appropriate. So again, if you don't get a proper sick pay, blame either your NHS wherever you're paying taxes, or blame yourself for dodging payments. Also nobody forces anybody to go on Confair, you can always go local and get proper health insurance.

I'm not saying Wizz is perfect, far from it - but at least please get the facts straight.

"bonus" for day off, that is anyway a joke of a payment, "real" airlines give you 300 - 1000 Euros a day to work a day off. NAS FO's would get 500 Euros.

As for the tax system, do you really want to go there? Local or Non - Local, you are paying taxes to Switzerland? WTF? You are "self employed" in Confair contract, at same time you get a Swiss employment contract. Very nice......
And than a friend of mine working now at Wizz, was surprised and disappointed why Wizz was getting help from the Hungarian government.....
Well 5 months ago he was boasting of not paying any taxes being based in Romania, and now he wants government help, you just can't make these things up.

While he just recently returned to Wizz, for the exact reason to avoid paying any tax, as the double tax treaty with Switzerland is extremely flawed.
As for the sick day, they would just a days salary from your pay for every sick day. I seem to recall it was around 111 Euros as SFO.

Of course this encourages people to work when sick.
Equally the current pay structure, Tesco Basic pay + very high sector pay, so better don't be sick or fatigue, because you are going to pay for from your own pocket big time.

Besides that, nothing of course beats the Cabin Crew or the girls of VNO, or the bars and restaurants there, specially before they go the Euros, so of course there was some positive things there.

[TBSC]

Compensation for working on off days is not even recorded as a certain amount of money but sector payment(s) which differs by position and base.
NAS FOs could indeed get 500 EUR if they'd have an airline to work for.

[truckflyer]

Originally Posted by TBSC

Compensation for working on off days is not even recorded as a certain amount of money but sector payment(s) which differs by position and base.
NAS FOs could indeed get 500 EUR if they'd have an airline to work for.

Yes those actually do still have an airline to work for.

People should value their "free time", so companies like Wizz stop exploiting air balloon heads. But I guess you already decided that you don't want to value you your free time, so continue and let them abuse you.

[matt283]

Meanwhile seems like in many bases wizz decided to made redundant cabin crew the with the oldest contracts...

[a350pilots]

Originally Posted by truckflyer

"

Besides that, nothing of course beats the Cabin Crew or the girls of VNO, or the bars and restaurants there, specially before they go the Euros, so of course there was some positive things there.

Can you elaborate? How is crew life?