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Great Emirates Terms & Conditions Trend Analysis by EK Capt

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On Your Six

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 8, 2004
Posts
4,507
Great EK post from a Captain who is thinking about leaving (found on Pprune). I realize not everyone thinks Pprune offers good advice. Regardless, interesting analysis on his part:

After almost eight years with EK I thought it might be interesting to look back at the various “ improvements” I have observed to my terms and conditions of employment over the years. Or to put it another way, assess the performance of my investment over the past eight years. I invest my time for their money.

I think most of us when investing time or money in a project would research past performance and look for a positive trend before committing or reinvesting. Few would be interested in investing in a down trending market. So as part of my weekly reassessment I decided to see if I could pick a trend. Up or Down ??

1. Upgrade to command policy.
Used to be based on ability and seniority (should have both).Now. Min 3 years, Hours Requirements, DEC’s etc. A shambles I think. Most FO’s not happy.

2. Pick up and Sign on times.
Extended to allow for Dubai traffic to 2 hours 15 minutes prior to departure. Pick up times from briefing to the aircraft extended to 70 minutes prior to departure to allow for airport traffic. Duty start time still 1 hour before departure time. So my duty time for safety limits starts about 45 minutes after I arrive at work.

3. Sign off time.
Changed from arrival time plus 30 minutes to plus zero minutes. If you’re off the airport within 45 minutes after arrival you’re doing well.

4. Ground school. (Pilot education)
Used to be, Days per year, 4 for PPC, 1 for CRM, and 1 for Emergency procedures. Now 1 day for everything and self “education” and exams carried out at home over the internet.

5. Reserve.
Was usually around 3 weeks spread over bottom two bid groups. Sometimes the odd day in middle bid. Now 35 consecutive days with NO days off pre planned for the whole 35 days and can’t bid for leave during those reserve months. (May swap with others if you can) So this year I have two reserve blocks. That’s two and a half months this year I can’t bid for anything, days off or leave.

6. Leave.
42 days a year and used to be able to take blocks up to 33 consecutive days at a time if desired. Now the bidding system allows you 21 consecutive days for peak leave and 14 consecutive for non peak and these can slip a few days either way for “flexibility”. For anyone who comes from the other side of the planet as I do 21 days is the minimum for a good rest and 14 is a joke. (In my humble opinion).

7. Flight / Duty hours.
Credit for all time on the aircraft (at work) was counted towards pay and duty time limits. Now they’ll pay you for all time on the aircraft (nice of them) but only count time in the seat if you’re the augmenting crew towards safety limits. (Flight time factoring). So now it’s easy to exceed 1000 hours a year on the aircraft. And I almost forgot, it’s OK to exceed 900 hours a year as long as you’re back to 900 by the end of the 12th month. (I think that’s how it works?) Rest periods, hotel standards, allowances all in decline. The company hot bunks the hotel rooms so it’s very common to arrive in Sydney for example, after a 15 hour duty and wait half an hour for the rooms to be available. Yes a small thing but you try it a few times.

8. Max Days off Per Month.

Ah yes, the latest improvement to my package. Max off days were not limited but now effectively limited to 14 per month. I think other postings on this web site cover it in appropriate depth.


Now I know many other companies have similar or lesser conditions and some will say I’m an ungrateful lazy pilot. You are entitled to your opinion as am I.
My point is I didn’t leave my home country to invest my time for those employers. I joined EK 8 years ago with an expectation of possible improvements and possible pullbacks in conditions. I now look back and see very little resemblance to my original terms and conditions. In short, a good investment at the outset but now a definite sell. The dropping US dollar is not EK's fault but it still hurts to see I now take home exactly 990 US dollars more in my home currency than I did 8 years ago. Not bad eh??

I think it’s safe to say I see a negative trend ( yes subjective I know) and as a prudent investor I will not be reinvesting anymore time in this venture. It’s a shame to see greed and fear spoil what was a very good company.

Farewell EK. It’s been real………………
 
We had a guy join CX as an SO in 2006 that came from the left seat of an Airbus at Emirates.

Food for thought.

Mayday
 

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