Please find below an update on:
- Immobilized Off days (FFOD)
- Joint Venture Airline in China
- CWA Negotiation Survey
- Rostering of FDP and Rest Periods
- SwissLife Supplementary Pension.
Immobilized Off Days (FFOD)
In January 2017 Cargolux introduced a system to immobilize FOD (FFOD), which principles are laid down in CWA B1-37.1.3. c).
After the publication of Roster Period 10 we would like to take the opportunity to remind everybody to check the receipt of their entitled blocks of FFOD.
Attached is the text of the not yet ratified „FFOD agreement “, which deals with the allocation process of the FFOD and the harmonization with part time, long term sick leave and pilots, who join the company during the year.
In the event of any discrepancies, please feel free to contact us at cvboard@alpl.lu for further investigation.
Joint Venture Airline (JVA) in China
A letter was recently sent to all members regarding the situation of the JVA. Management has provided information that the JVA will most likely commence in the 4th quarter of 2018. Other than that information nothing has been heard. As your Representatives we have two major concerns:
- Rumors of Direct Entry Captains being approached to be trained for the JVA who do not have a B747 type rating, and
- No plan being communicated on training of current First Officers at Cargolux to be Captains for the JVA on a temporary posting.
Following the letter that was sent a commitment to sit at the table and discuss how opportunities will be offered to First Officers for positions as Captains is now pending.
CWA Negotiation Survey
On 30 June 2017 we asked all our members to participate in a survey to highlight the most pressing issues which need to be changed in the upcoming negotiations.
In the last Divisional Board meeting on 04 September 2017, the result of the survey was presented and discussed. Based on that analysis, further steps regarding the strategy and preparing the negotiations were agreed on and will be communicated to the LCGB.
Without going too much into detail, the main priorities of our members focus, in no particular order, on removing the “B-scale”, roster stability, improving FTLs and salary increases.
Based on these results, this gives the ALPL a clear mandate what needs to be negotiated when the CWA expires in late 2018. A negotiating team has been formed and is now working on preparing all arguments.
Flight Duty Periods (FDP) Published Limits – Standard Crew
We are receiving reports that after roster changes the CWA FDP Roster publication limits for Standard Crews are not being respected.
It is important to know, that the word “published” is not only applicable at roster publication but must also be applied when your roster has been re-published after a change. It remains logical that the FDP you are now scheduled to operate are still bound to conform with ALL CWA limits.
EASA regulations clearly state an operator´s responsibility is to ensure that flights are planned to be completed within the allowable flight duty period. The 30 minutes buffer was agreed upon to prevent pilots always having to go into discretion.
Once a Standard Crew reports for duty, the full legal limits are applicable in case of unforeseen delays.
Please remain vigilant on enforcing your CWA. As always please contact us if you are not sure if your roster is compliant with the CWA.
Minimum Rest Periods
After recognizing an operational delay in AIMS during a rotation and the consequential request to confirm the change, many members noticed, that the related minimum rest requirements thereafter were not published accurately.
In these cases, please send a polite email to crew control requesting a corrected published roster with the correct minimum rest requirements as per the CWA.
SwissLife Supplementary Pension
It was brought to our attention by our members that there are apparently problems regarding the SwissLife Supplementary Pension Scheme. Several were reported, but the most pressing issue is an apparent age-discrimination that could have a serious impact on the benefits of eligible members.
Without going too much into detail, the problem is that the total annual amount of fixed contributions paid by the company is calculated at the beginning of the year at a fixed date while the benefits could vary decisively depending on the actual date of the beneficiary’s birthday.
This effect is further amplified by the allocation any employee to a certain age group which is influenced by the member’s actual date of birth, too. This allocation has in turn a critical effect on the date of migration of a beneficiary to the next higher contribution group and thus directly determines the total amount of money paid into the scheme over the course of time.
Together with interest-effects this could mean that certain beneficiaries could receive a substantially lower pension lump-sum at the end of the contractual period than other employees with the same number of years of contribution.
This discrimination by age was confirmed by IGSS of Luxembourg, which also proposed a different way of calculating the benefits in order to rectify this problem.
Since all employees are affected by the issue we put it on the agenda of the last delegation meeting. Our aim is to amend the scheme with the company in order to get these problems fixed and to avoid discrimination.
