Hello all,
Our contract is still a couple of years away yet from being expired, but since this was our first contract, I think there were a lot of mistakes made that I hope we can fix in the next version. One of the areas that concerns us most is how we currently "junior assign" people to cover sick calls/vacations. Basically our contract reads, that if someone calls out sick, then they will ask for volunteers first based on seniority (higher seniority gets first crack at the overtime).....if no one volunteers, then they go in reverse seniority and force the most eligible junior person to work.
If it's your day off, and you simply don't answer the phone....well, there are no consequences cause they couldn't reach you.....but if you answer the phone whether by intent or not, well they've nailed you to work. Same goes if you happen to physically be at work.
Now I'm not sure if this is standard practice or not, and that's what I'm kind of trying to find out, is if this is standard practice amongst other airlines. Our biggest gripes come from the fact that we are starting to feel like we are "on-call" employees. Many of us have gotten screwed out of doctors appointments, or other plans we had because of this whole junior assignment thing. We almost start to feel like we should never plan to do anything, because we are at the mercy of the company.
Do your contracts all work this way? Do you have certain clauses that offer the employee some protection in these circumstances? I'm sure the answer is most likely "it's just the nature of the business" but I am still curious to see how it works at other places. Keep in mind we are very small, so we don't have dispatchers that are on "relief lines" that I know some of the larger airlines have. Thanks for any feedback you all might be able to provide in this matter.
Our contract is still a couple of years away yet from being expired, but since this was our first contract, I think there were a lot of mistakes made that I hope we can fix in the next version. One of the areas that concerns us most is how we currently "junior assign" people to cover sick calls/vacations. Basically our contract reads, that if someone calls out sick, then they will ask for volunteers first based on seniority (higher seniority gets first crack at the overtime).....if no one volunteers, then they go in reverse seniority and force the most eligible junior person to work.
If it's your day off, and you simply don't answer the phone....well, there are no consequences cause they couldn't reach you.....but if you answer the phone whether by intent or not, well they've nailed you to work. Same goes if you happen to physically be at work.
Now I'm not sure if this is standard practice or not, and that's what I'm kind of trying to find out, is if this is standard practice amongst other airlines. Our biggest gripes come from the fact that we are starting to feel like we are "on-call" employees. Many of us have gotten screwed out of doctors appointments, or other plans we had because of this whole junior assignment thing. We almost start to feel like we should never plan to do anything, because we are at the mercy of the company.
Do your contracts all work this way? Do you have certain clauses that offer the employee some protection in these circumstances? I'm sure the answer is most likely "it's just the nature of the business" but I am still curious to see how it works at other places. Keep in mind we are very small, so we don't have dispatchers that are on "relief lines" that I know some of the larger airlines have. Thanks for any feedback you all might be able to provide in this matter.