Longevity while on furlough ?

[upndsky]

Just a quick question:

Let's say a 2-year pilot gets furloughed and it's 3 years before he's recalled. Does he come back at 5-year pay?

 

[Bluto]

Not at my company, or any other one that I've heard of. Generally, only seniority remains intact.

 

[higherflyer]

Let's say a 2-year pilot gets furloughed and it's 3 years before he's recalled. Does he come back at 5-year pay?

I believe that it works that way for DL furloughees.

 

[typhoonpilot]

This was an interesting issue when the early to mid 90 furloughees were recalled to their respective airlines. I can't remember how all the airlines did it but most furloughees were given some credit for time on furlough. We fought for it at USAirways but it was not deemed an important issue by the MEC. The result was that I returned from an eight year furlough and was still only on 2nd year pay. What we did get ( and the big reason I left a good job to go back ) was longevity credit for our pension. So I had ten years credit in that when I went back. In the latest contract that nice feature was deleted so the current furloughees wouldn't have received the same thing. It's all moot at USAirways now because the pension was terminated.

This can be a major issue in a merger scenario. When we were looking at a merger with United the thought was that a potential judgement might be partially based on W-2 income. Obviously the higher up the pay scale one is the better it would have turned out. The other thought was a judge might look at years of service for both sides furloughees. The United pilots who were furloughed in the late 70s were made partially whole for their time on furlough so that could have adversely affected the USAir furloughees who were not.

Typhoonpilot

 

[jtf]

When Trans States furloughed after 9-11 they furloughed out of order and then this was grieved by the union. When the pilots were brought back they were given longevity for seniority and pay, but not vacation and sick time since the company lost the grievance, but they sure wouldn't have done it if they didn't screw over the pilots by going out of seniority order to begin with.