Skywest Terms

[legalalien]

I have a few questions for Skywest guys. I am an ASA pilot trying to get a handle on what you guys get paid etc. I don't know how I could ever come to a rational conclusion on voting for a strike or on a TA unless I know what you guys get.

A couple of weeks ago one of our guys posted some of your workrules on our ALPA website. I had a few questions after reading that. I would be grateful for any answers you could give.

1) How does your profit share work? Is it based on some performance criteria or as a percentage of profit?

2) What percentages did you receive over the last year?

3) We know your payrates but as we all know it is the workrules that determine the W2. Typically how much "soft - time " are you paid each month. In other words how much extra do your work rules provide over your block hours?

4) What is your sick leave accrual rate? Are there any restrictions on taking sick leave credit? (first day pay etc)

5) What is your vacation entitlement? - I assume it increases with years service.

6) What is your vacation pay per day of vacation? and can you turn 1 week into a longer period by having touching trips dropped? If so are you payprotected?

7) What kind of retirement do you have? I assume just a 401k - what is the company contribution?

8) How much do you pay for medical? Are you happy with the plan?


That is probably enough for now - I am sure that I will have more questions. I appreciate any help you guys can give.

Personally I think that we should all be working towards one pilot group now - how that happens is another story- please not for this thread. I do know that it will only be a fair integration if everyone is equally pissed off - that is the nature of seniority list integrations.

 

[bayoubandit]

Hope this helps!

1. The "profit sharing" is a combination of Performance rewards, such as on time, bag handeling, pax complaint kinda of stuff. The other is a Margin Based Incentive Program. It's based on a net margin and I believe has been running around 5.5% of income. I don't know if it;s from net or gross.

2. See above.

3. We have a duty rig of 1:2 up to 12 hrs SCHEDULED and 1:1 over 12 hrs. SCHEDULED. On reserve I typically block 65-80hrs and am credit around 100hrs. Reserve system can pay well if you break garuantee.

4. This part blows. Everything SKW does is based on how hard you want to work. The sick rate is based on longevity and accrued based on credit hours. No trip touching drops and if your vacation touches part of a trip, you are responsible to position yourself to resume that trip. Example, you are DEN based and your vacation covers the 1st day of your trip, the second day goes from a Wichita RON to O'Hare, you have to get yourself to ORD to resume the trip on day 2.

After 90 days, its .0193/hr
After 2 yrs, .027/hr
After 5 yrs .0385/hr

Vacation works the same

After 6 months .0385
5 yrs .0462
10yrs .0577

7. 401K, that's it. 2%match up to 4yrs
4% 4-6yrs
6% over 6yrs
There is a 401K imbalance where the senior guys cannot max out their 401K and have the money returned to them. The pilots do not have a seperate 401K from other employees.

My medical is for a Utah HMO and runs me about $140/month for a party of 2. I haven't used this new plan yet so I cant say how well it works.

 

[Andy Neill]

Profit sharing comes in two forms - Operational Performance Rewards and Financial Performance Rewards.

Operational Performance Rewards are given to all employees with at least one year service as of the last day of the quarter upon which it is based. It comes from four performance criteria and one of those (On Time) is further divided into two (On Time Departure 0 and On TIme Arrival 14). For each of the four criteria (On Time, Customer Satisfaction, Flight Completion, and Lost Bags, we get nothing if the mimimum standard was not met, $25 if we met the minimum, $50 if we hit the target, and $75 if we had exceptional performance in that area. The Rewards have ranged from $150 to $250.

Financial Performance rewards are paid to all employees who have at least 2 years with the company as of the last day of the quarter. The value of the reward is the Net Profit Margin for SkyWest (not SjkyWest, Inc.) times the employee's individual quarterly pay. The percentages have ranged from 5.21% to 6.45%

I'll leave others to address soft leave except to say that it is the greatest for those who do stand up overnights = CDs = naps because we have a 1:2 duty rig. We also have a leg by leg max{actual, historic block} guarantee.

Sick Leave (User Ttime) is accrued at a rate of .0193 hours per hour of flight time beginning at 90 days service and tops out at .0385 hours per hour at five years service. Another way to think of iot is that you get 1.93% of your time off for User Time (about 1 week per year).

Vacation Time is accrued at a rate of .0385 hours per hour after 6 months and maxes out at .0769 hours/hour after 19 years.

The rate at which one would use vacation time depends on how much flight time was on his schedule for the time period he is taking off. For instance, if you use vacation to get off a 4-day trip paying 20 hours, you would use 20 hours vacation time and get paid 20 hours.

Retirement is 401k. You may begin after 90 days service and the company will begin a 1:1 100% immediately vested match up to 2%. The company match goes to 4% and 6% and 5 and 10 years respectively. We also have an Employee Stock Purchase Plan whereby we can set aside up to 15% of our pay in a 6 month period. At the end of the 6 month period, the company will take the lower of the opening price or closing price and deduct 15% from that. That is the price at which you will be buying stock. For instance, if the opening price on 3 Jan was $27.06 and the closing price on 30 Jun was $33.00, you would be buying stock (put in your account around the 7th of July) at 85% of $27.06 = $23.01. You would be free to hang on to it or sell it immediately at the market price.

I'll also leave the medical question to others as I don't use it.

 

[saviboy]

I dont mean to hijack your thread
but was wonering if ASA had trip and duty rigs similar to skywest or AWAC?

I have a few questions for Skywest guys. I am an ASA pilot trying to get a handle on what you guys get paid etc. I don't know how I could ever come to a rational conclusion on voting for a strike or on a TA unless I know what you guys get.

A couple of weeks ago one of our guys posted some of your workrules on our ALPA website. I had a few questions after reading that. I would be grateful for any answers you could give.

1) How does your profit share work? Is it based on some performance criteria or as a percentage of profit?

2) What percentages did you receive over the last year?

3) We know your payrates but as we all know it is the workrules that determine the W2. Typically how much "soft - time " are you paid each month. In other words how much extra do your work rules provide over your block hours?

4) What is your sick leave accrual rate? Are there any restrictions on taking sick leave credit? (first day pay etc)

5) What is your vacation entitlement? - I assume it increases with years service.

6) What is your vacation pay per day of vacation? and can you turn 1 week into a longer period by having touching trips dropped? If so are you payprotected?

7) What kind of retirement do you have? I assume just a 401k - what is the company contribution?

8) How much do you pay for medical? Are you happy with the plan?


That is probably enough for now - I am sure that I will have more questions. I appreciate any help you guys can give.

Personally I think that we should all be working towards one pilot group now - how that happens is another story- please not for this thread. I do know that it will only be a fair integration if everyone is equally pissed off - that is the nature of seniority list integrations.

 

[legalalien]

No - no trip or duty rigs, but do remember we are operating under a contract signed in 1998 - so I don't think any regionals had rigs then. It was a leading contract in 1998 but is now a bit on the stale side!!!

Our pay is hasn't changed since Sept 15th 2001 apart from a .5 % raise on September 15th 2002! and the company wants to freeze that for 5 years. So in other words the company wants a rate set in 1998 (plus 0.5%) to last until 2011!

Thanks for the replies guys - anyone have anything else to add?.

That vacation system sounds terrible. When do you bid for vacation? If you are junior and have little control over your schedule that must be a really bad vacation system - I can't believe that they expect you to self position.

 

[HockleyPilot]

.....

 

[saviboy]

thanks for the answer alien,
is it planned that you guys get trip and duty rigs in the new contract?

No - no trip or duty rigs, but do remember we are operating under a contract signed in 1998 - so I don't think any regionals had rigs then. It was a leading contract in 1998 but is now a bit on the stale side!!!

Our pay is hasn't changed since Sept 15th 2001 apart from a .5 % raise on September 15th 2002! and the company wants to freeze that for 5 years. So in other words the company wants a rate set in 1998 (plus 0.5%) to last until 2011!

Thanks for the replies guys - anyone have anything else to add?.

That vacation system sounds terrible. When do you bid for vacation? If you are junior and have little control over your schedule that must be a really bad vacation system - I can't believe that they expect you to self position.

 

[trip]

When I've had a trip touch vacation they have always called me and asked where I wanted to split it or just drop the whole thing.

Keep in mind this is all changing with PBS-where she goes nobody knows!

 

[Splert]

What Andy N. said except to point out that the actual vs. block doesn't come into play until the actual block exceeds the credit of the 1-for-2 duty time rig or the 12-hour premium pay guarantee. For those of us flying the line we now that when you have a single 2-hour sit and a bunch of turns with 30-50 turns times (all common place) the guarantee becomes an illusion (distraction) very fast. Especially, since the guarantee are based on SCHEDULED duty time.

Also, the 401K is having serious problems with being balanced between HCE and NHCE. Most if not all pilots that gross over 95K are having their own EMPLOYEE contributions returned.

 

[legalalien]

Saviboy,
We are planning to ask for it - what we end up with - your guess is as good as mine!

Andy, bayou etc,
Thanks for the replies. That helps.

How many weeks vacation does this method give you? Do you bid on it annually?


Also is there a maximum sick leave accrual ? Is so how much?

 

[legalalien]

I also notice that the Performance rewards/Profit share is better at Skywest. Here at ASA they gave it to everyone except the contract employees (Pilots, FA's and Dispatchers)

They also don't have a separate performance reward. The profit share is based on company profit but targets have to be made. So for ASA they combined the two plans and gave the employees less - Nice!

 

[Andy Neill]

Vacations (52 1 week periods) are bid once a year (November) for the following calendar year for your aircraft/seat/domicile combination. If any part of that combination changes before you get to your vacation, the bid is vacated (get it? VACATED?). I did a study of one largish domcile and there were only two weeks that had more requesters than slots available. If you move or change, your vacation will be based on an as is available arrangement between you, your chief pilot, and crew scheduling.

As I said in my previous post, you can consider that you will start out accruing about 1 week per year user time and about 2 weeks a year vacation time going to a max of about 2 weeks per year user time and 4 weeks per year vacation time. The calendar worth will vary with the value of the flying it is to replace.

Vacation time STOPS accruing once you reach 186 hours. User time never stops accruing BUT, if you have more than 240 accumulated at the end of the year, any excess over 240 will be cashed out to you at your current rate. Anyone can also elect to cash out any portion (or all) of his user time at the end of the year even if no where close to 240.