question about YOUR contracts

[bgaviator]

I was curious as to what your contract rules are regarding junior manning? Just trying to get info in case I'm still here when our next contract negotiations role around. The reason I bring this up is because I was recently junior manned with only a few days notice. I am a little upset by this only for the fact that I now cannot attend a joint birthday party for my son and my wife's cousin's baby that we had been planning for weeks. The family was also counting on me to provide/prepare a lot of the food for this party. Now, all in all this instance isn't that huge of a deal, but then I got to thinking.....wonder if I had something even more substantial going on.....like something I had paid a lot of money or made reservations for? I mean, it's not like we're getting paid to be "on-call" on our days off......but essentially I feel like you can never plan to do anything on your days off, because if you get junior manned and you say you can't do it, then there is fear of punishment. Maybe I would feel a little more at ease if the next contract had a clause that if the company junior manned you, and you suffered financial loss due to having to cancel something and you can provide documentation to show it, that the company would have to reimburse you. Am I being over the top on this? It only seems fair in my mind, especially since we don't get paid to be on-call......hell, even if they didn't want to pay us to be on call, they could at a minimum say, ok, this month, or these two weeks so-and-so is on-call so don't plan anything just in case. What are your thoughts, and what are your contracts like regarding this? Thanks.

 

[homerjdispatch]

At OO we dont have a junior man policy (we dont have a union or contract either)... In my 9 years here, I have never heard of an dispatcher being juniormanned. We have a great O.T. policy and plenty of people to pick up shifts if needed.....

 

[dispatchguy]

For us, tag, youre it. If there is a shift and they cant cover it thru voluntary OT, then they go thru the seniority list and tag, youre it. Unlike the UAL pilots, you cant say youre not available...

 

[cksport]

I've never heard of being junior manned days in advance. Most contracts that I have seen require the company to attempt to cover it with voluntary OT first, then it is fair game. Being junior manned really stinks, but sometimes it is a necessary evil. Also, in most contracts that I have seen, if you had invested money in non-refundable deposits, etc., you are entitled to reimbursement up to the agreed contract amount in such cases. Hope everything works out for you dude.

 

[bgaviator]

Thanks for your inputs. In this case, I did not have any money invested in anything, but the whole situation just got me thinking towards the future....and possible clauses we could try to put in our next contract. My boss did try to get every other person to take the O/T, but no one would bite. At least I can say this....junior manning rarely happens.....someone almost always takes the O/T, but occasionally it doesn't happen. We have all been doing a lot of O/T lately after we had lost one person, so I think everyone is just burned out for awhile.

 

[onewithwings]

For us, tag, youre it. If there is a shift and they cant cover it thru voluntary OT, then they go thru the seniority list and tag, youre it.

Same here! I happened to be boarding a flight to Alaska when I (stupidly) answered my phone. I got drafted to work a graveyard shift on a weekend with NO notice. Yup, we are union!

We've been having to work a tremendous amount of OT...yet they keep furloughing. No one will pick up the OT because we are all tired of increasing flights and workloads.