Furlough recalls, how do they work?

[ThisistheDream]

I was wondering if anyone could provide some insight on furlough recalls. The question is if your a senior pilot and bypass a recall and then there is another recall do the airlines send out recalls to everyone again or they do send the recalls out to the ones that have not recieved a recall on 1st round before they go to the top of the seniority list again. the way I understand it, you can bypass a recall as many times as you want until the most junior pilot gets a recall and after that you must say yes or no otherwise you will be off the list and then the street hiring starts agian. does this sound right. thanks stop the race to the bottom

 

[DoinTime]

I was wondering if anyone could provide some insight on furlough recalls. The question is if your a senior pilot and bypass a recall and then there is another recall do the airlines send out recalls to everyone again or they do send the recalls out to the ones that have not recieved a recall on 1st round before they go to the top of the seniority list again. the way I understand it, you can bypass a recall as many times as you want until the most junior pilot gets a recall and after that you must say yes or no otherwise you will be off the list and then the street hiring starts agian. does this sound right. thanks stop the race to the bottom

The terms of recall are specific to your particular company and working agreement.

 

[Hosed COEX]

True, each airline has its own rules. But generally it works like this.

Recalls start with the most senior furloughed pilot. Each pilot can say "accept, defer, or resign". It continues this way down to the bottom of the seniority list until they reach the last guy. Then, they start back UP the seniority list from the bottom and tell all the people who said "defer" the first time now you can either "accept or resign".

Also, people who deferred often have the option of calling HR and saying "Hey, I deferred but now I don't want to wait anymore and want to come back." That person will be placed in the next vacant class.

So to answer your question, HR will only call you twice, once on the way down, and once on the way back up if you deferred the first time. Make sense?

 

[ThisistheDream]

ya makes sense, but what if there multiple recalls.

example lets says there are 100 pilots on furlough. the company needs 25 pilots back. so they send out 75 recall letters to the top 75 pilots hoping to get 25 to say yes and comeback. then they take the top 25 that said yes to come back. there where 25 pilots on furlough that did not get a recall letter since they figured that 25 out of 75 letters would say yes. now 6 months later they need an additional 10 more pilots. do they start the recall letters with the 25 at the bottom since they havent had a chance to say yes or no or do they send recalls letters out to everyone agian. allowing a senior guy to have a chance agian before a junior guy??

 

[DoinTime]

True, each airline has its own rules. But generally it works like this.

There is no such thing as "general" contract language. Call your Union reps and get a specific answer for your particular situation and don't base your plans or future on the generalities read on the internet.

 

[Hosed COEX]

ya makes sense, but what if there multiple recalls.

example lets says there are 100 pilots on furlough. the company needs 25 pilots back. so they send out 75 recall letters to the top 75 pilots hoping to get 25 to say yes and comeback. then they take the top 25 that said yes to come back. there where 25 pilots on furlough that did not get a recall letter since they figured that 25 out of 75 letters would say yes. now 6 months later they need an additional 10 more pilots. do they start the recall letters with the 25 at the bottom since they havent had a chance to say yes or no or do they send recalls letters out to everyone agian. allowing a senior guy to have a chance agian before a junior guy??

At the two airlines I've been furloughed from, in your example, no they would not send letters to the top 75 again - they'd send them to the bottom 25. But, anyone in the top 75 could have called HR between the first and second recall, indicate a desire to come back ASAP, and they would be put into class before anyone in the bottom 25. But no, HR would not specifically call those top 75 again.

As Doin' Time suggests, check your contract or call your union for specifics.