Pinnacle bonuses change AGAIN

[Inconceivable]

Effective immediately:

New hire classes were told this evening that:

1. The $400 weekly stipend (paid as an "independent contractor--all taxes and SS your responsibility) has now been reduced to $200 per week.

2. IOE completion bonus of $750 not to be paid to anyone--including those who have already completed it and are awaiting payment.

3. Six month longevity bonus of $500 cancelled.

No surprise, several people announced their intention to "vote with their feet" while others plan to milk PCL through the end of training and then move on.

Great job guys! This will really help your fall/winter staffing model.

 

[Flywrite]

Man, I bet a lot of folks are pissed!

Imagine the guy who worked out his budget and figured that if he was careful he could just about make it on $400 a week during training, but that the bonus at the end would be sorely needed. Now he's siting in class being told this crap...classy outfit indeed.

 

[crxpilot]

Were these payments in a contract? If they were I would bet they are still liable to pay out those amounts, no?

 

[XJohXJ]

Boy, there's no other way to say it: That sucks.

You guys have your battle cut out for you. What an utterly classless company.

 

[siucavflight]

Bunch of crap, if I was in training I would walk out. There are plenty of other places that are willing to take you!

 

[Flyer1015]

Were these payments in a contract? If they were I would bet they are still liable to pay out those amounts, no?

No, it wasn't in a contract, it was more like "incentives" they announced for June, as seen here in this pdf file:

http://www.flypinnacle.com/site/our...uments/pilots/incentives/pilot_incentives.pdf


But if all this is true, and pay is down to $200/wk and no $750+$500 bonus, then it does suck. I know people (both currently in class who just started and some who are about to start) and they were budgeting for $400 a week... and even that wasn't enough.

This sucks no matter which way you look at it.

It certainly doesn't sound like 'Simply the Best.' So why don't they just change that slogan?

 

[flyf15]

Wow, are they purposefully trying to make it so they can't staff their Delta operation? I can't understand why they'd sabotage it, but regional management doesn't really ever make any sense to me.

Seems like they'd really want it to be successful so that they can get more business in the future.... and to do so, they'd really go the extra yard to make sure it can be staffed by not only pilots, but pilots who will want to help it succeed.

 

[PCL_128]

It certainly doesn't sound like 'Simply the Best.' So why don't they just change that slogan?

I hope they don't ever change the slogan. Whenever we used it against them (sarcastically on stickers, in newsletter articles, etc...), it drove Phildo absolutely nuts. Anything to drive up Phildo's blood pressure and bring him yet another "heart incident" is ok in my book.

 

[flyf15]

This got me thinking... is Pinnacle, for some reason, less interested in recruiting now? Any rumors of them preparing to loose a large chunk of flying or anything like that?

 

[Metro752]

Dude over at APC says this is all BS?

Oh really, that's weird. Pretty sure my check I get tomorrow is $400 and that I'm living in a single room. Please cite some sources before you post erroneous information.

http://www.flypinnacle.com/site/our...uments/pilots/incentives/pilot_incentives.pdf

Pay is still $400/week during training, you get it every Friday. There is still a $750 bonus at the end of IOE and still a $500 longevity bonus at the end of 6 months. The benefits here are great, yeah the contract needs some work but it should be coming soon. Pinnacle is growing, hopefully some more DCI flying will come our way in the future. The training department is awesome and the people are great. You can get any base you want right now with the exception of ATL, it went pretty senior in the initial opening. It's a good place to be right now, if you have CRJ time already and meet the upgrade minimums you can upgrade pretty much right after OE. The most junior captain is about 50 people in front of me and I started a month ago. Come to Pinnacle, I could use some more people that are junior to me .

http://www.airlinepilotforums.com/showthread.php?t=16645

 

[Windsor]

Where did this info come from? I havent heard anything about it floating around the CEC lately.

 

[Inconceivable]

Apparently the $200 for the first two weeks was a trial to see if they could get away with it. No one resigned en masse, so they had a new benchmark for how far they could push, starting with next weeks checks.

Their attitude is "if your daddy can pay $30k for you to play a video game for three months at Jet U, you shouldn't have any trouble getting another check out of him in training."

 

[dondk]

I had a couple new hires contact me.. it is sort of true... yes the company is balking on the bonus payments. Then again I cannot recall a time when they actually paid the bonus.

after some talk, they gave back the 750 bonus, but I am not sure if they actually paid it yet.

there is no contract, so there is nothing binding the company from removing it or not honoring it...

the recruitment.. that was a 90 day window.. I think the window closes in September..

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

even the bait is rotten.....

 

[Windsor]

the recruitment.. that was a 90 day window.. I think the window closes in September..

If they were to tell me that they were cutting the pay in training to $200 a week, I woulda walked.

I'm betting that if the $200 is the new pay, most of the new hires will walk. About the only ones that will stay will be the 300hr jet u types.

They complain about not being able to fill classes, yet pull this kind of crap. Are they really that stupid to think they can get away with it and still get well qualified people to come to class?

 

[Flyer1015]

They complain about not being able to fill classes, yet pull this kind of crap. Are they really that stupid to think they can get away with it and still get well qualified people to come to class?

<-------------- SIMPLY THE BEST!

 

[Inconceivable]

They complain about not being able to fill classes, yet pull this kind of crap. Are they really that stupid to think they can get away with it and still get well qualified people to come to class?

YES!

Some companies like NWA and AMR will do you dirty in a second if it can benefit the bottom line.

PCL is just mean-spirited: they make self destructive decisions like this routinely just to show that they can. As noted, the dollar amounts are often insignificant when compared to the operational havoc (and loss of executive bonuses!) that result.

As I have stated before: They are just bad people!

 

[www.]

Effective immediately:

New hire classes were told this evening that:

1. The $400 weekly stipend (paid as an "independent contractor--all taxes and SS your responsibility) has now been reduced to $200 per week.

2. IOE completion bonus of $750 not to be paid to anyone--including those who have already completed it and are awaiting payment.

3. Six month longevity bonus of $500 cancelled.

No surprise, several people announced their intention to "vote with their feet" while others plan to milk PCL through the end of training and then move on.

Great job guys! This will really help your fall/winter staffing model.

Breach of contract if the Company put it out in writing.

If so, Company says if you do this, come to work for me, I will do this, pay you these bonuses. That is a contract, a meeting of the minds if both people except the terms by their actions.

 

[dondk]

Breach of contract if the Company put it out in writing.

If so, Company says if you do this, come to work for me, I will do this, pay you these bonuses. That is a contract, a meeting of the minds if both people except the terms by their actions.

good point, except when you bring this up they will tell you they don't recall that conversation or you must have been mistaken. They have done that in the past and more than once.

there is fine print that they will make up when someone really pushes, then you also have to remember you are on probation the first year.. too much noise and you are unemployed (I have seen that too).

 

[qxpilot27]

Let's say some of the new hires do walk. Can that be considered an unsuccessful attempt to complete a 121 training program? I am just wondering if that kind of thing would bite you in the long run.