This was posted on a skykwest message board just as the bucket system was being implimented at skywest. Thought the asa guys/gals could gleen something.
OK, I still feel like there are several areas that need to be addressed regarding this new policy. Vacation, Comp. Days, Golden Days, etc are awarded based on adequate staffing of reserves. If there are too few reserves when requesting any of the above you will be given the standard response, “Sorry your (fill in the blank) is denied because we only have X number of reserves.” Chris Able stated the following:
“Minimum reserve staffing is a level that Anita Spencer determines adequate for each domicile. In small domiciles the minimum level may be one reserve, while in SLC that number may be 6. The minimum reserve staffing level will change depending on the time of year or time of month but will generally stay about the same. I will try to publish the minimum reserve staffing numbers on this forum.”
What if Anita says 6 reserves are all that are required in SLC and this never produces adequate coverage to allow approval of the requests mentioned above? Or let’s assume that 6 was an adequate number and for whatever reason this number was not maintained (total EMB reserve staffing dropped to as little as one for an entire month in SLC last year) who is accountable and how can the pilot group be assured that this minimum number will be maintained? Does the SAPA scheduling committee have a way to audit the staffing and determine for the pilot group what an appropriate number of reserves should be? What are the consequences if this number is not maintained? Fortunately we are now seeing a decent staffing but that was not the case for over two years and we all know how fast it could go back to understaffed.
Also, I have been trying to understand the “bucket system” of reserve and reading very closely what everybody has written thus far. I feel like I now see what David Whittaker was talking about referring to this as being a pay cut or another form of “proficiency flying”. This became clear when I called Crew Support to gage how much reserves were flying in Salt Lake over the past couple months. With the use of a helpful Scheduler I learned some interesting things about some of our reserves. This may be pure coincidence but two senior “call first” reserves had accumulated aprox 74 hours of flying and strangely no more flying was being assigned to them. It would also appear more flying was then being awarded to those further down the chain. I don’t want to appear as a conspiracy theorist and I hesitate to call foul play but I am concerned about the implementation of the bucket system.
The way I see it there are several inherent problems with the system as it currently exists. First, the “real time online list” of reserves does a meager job of portraying how personnel really stack up. The name of every person on reserve should be listed, not just the person on reserve checking status. I would almost venture to say that it took more computer code for the programmers to list a persons position in line than it would have to list everybody’s name with him, but I’m not a programmer so I cant be sure. Without these names there is less accountability placed on crew scheduling in my opinion. Also, I see no privacy issues with listing who’s on reserve. It’s not the same as listing someone’s schedule, which could place a persons position.
What’s that saying, knowledge is power? Without knowing who is on reserve during what days it’s hard to track whether seniority is truly being followed. Further, it would seem the “the bucket system” could provide an easy out for a scheduler to use any person at any time they please. All they have to do if questioned regarding an assignment for example is tell you that you had three days available in a row while the 5 people junior to you had only two days available and this is a three day trip. What about the one other junior blank name that shows three days off that you see listed on the computer you say. Well that no name was just being awarded a vacation day in the middle of that week and was no longer going to have three days available. Maybe this scenario is a little far fetched but it illustrates a point. Without hard data (names coupled with R1/R2 awards for the month) and ways to track the callouts there is no accountability and crew support could look for convenient ways to dilute the overall flying. Those looking to maximize their pay will have a hard time doing so, those bidding for “back up status” could end up flying a lot more than their seniority would dictate under the old straight seniority system. OK, this novel is over. Tell me where I am going wrong?
