Cargolux Board

We hope you had an enjoyable festive season with your loved ones or colleagues down route and a good start into the new year.

2020, a year that we will certainly remember for many reasons, was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications not only on our private, but also our professional lives. What initially seemed to be a supposedly isolated threat led to the cancelation of all layovers in mainland China, the implementation of protective measures and procedures to reduce the risk of getting infected. However, the situation changed quickly and soon we have been faced with many more restriction, including the fierce requirement of in-room confinement during layovers. 

Whilst the first vaccines have been rolled out and made available to the public, it is obvious that we will have to deal with the current situation for quite some more time until we will be able to enjoy “normal” layovers again. Cargolux pilots have shown a tremendous performance and resilience in these difficult times and once again proved their true value to the company. Unfortunately, management needs to be reminded over and over again of this fact. 

What else happened in 2020? The new off day scheme was introduced in January and it turned out to be well-received by our members. In July 2020 the new CWA provisions covering flight time limitations for Standard and Augmented Crew operation came into effect. This marked a huge step towards fatigue mitigation and was put to the test in a dynamically changing operational environment caused by numerous restrictions due to COVID-19.

In 2021 we will continue to focus on the correct application of the CWA as well as ongoing issues in the day-to-day operation, e.g. crew hotels. The last vacation bidding for 2021 revealed some issues in the process and together with Flight Operations Management and members of the Crew Planning Department we will analyse ways to improve the situation. 

In recent months we experienced a practical drift away from some provisions of the CWA as Crew Control more often seems to take certain flexibility offered by the pilot community as granted, which is being reflected in their scheduling practice without even asking the concerned pilot. 

Therefore, we encourage you to familiarize yourself with the CWA 2020-2022 and to also read our “Know Your CWA 2020” series. Know your contract and decide consciously when deviating from it.

Remember: We can negotiate conditions, but you have to enforce them!

Please find below an update on: 

• Hotel Accommodation 
• Profit Share
• Cargolux Divisional Assembly 2021

Hotel Accommodation
Our experience in 2020 has shown that the standards of our hotels are slowly but steadily being challenged. Whilst it is understandable to a certain extend that hotels had to be changed fairly quickly and many hotels still are closed because of COVID-19, it is not acceptable that these decisions in some cases were taken without involvement of the Hotel Committee. We continuously remind management of their obligation to honour internal policies, yet this isn’t always the case. 

In this context we would like to remind you that in the case that your accommodation does not fulfil the requirements of either the Hotel Policy and the CWA or your rest is in some way compromised, there are a couple of options you need to do. 

• First, carefully evaluate your fitness to conduct your next flight. It is absolutely essential that you are well rested before commencing any flight duty. If in doubt do not hesitate to request a quieter room, potentially requiring additional rest which may delay the departure accordingly. Please don’t forget to inform all your colleagues and the local station. Make sure to file a fatigue report and send a copy to cvhotels@alpl.lu.

• If the hotel has deficiencies of the standards as laid out in the Hotel Policy and also in the CWA 2020-2022, please file a VR and send a copy to cvhotels@alpl.lu.

Without a copy of the reports you submit, the Hotel Committee has nothing in their hands to follow-up these complaints with the company. Therefore, please take the time and always write a report and send a copy to the Hotel Committee as well.

The Hotel Committee is fulfilling their obligation as laid out in the Hotel Policy at its best to select and propose contracted hotels. It is unfortunate however, that this process occasionally still is ignored by Procurement Management and that the well-functioning of this collaboration is undermined by lack of transparency and poor communication from management side. 

Many have asked the Hotel Committee to identify hotels, which were not approved and not suggested as per the hotel policy and the CWA. To answer this question, we have to distinguish between government-imposed hotels and untransparent management decisions. 

BKK, HKG and SIN are known examples of mandatory accommodations. We are at least glad to see that overall, the “first in, first out” principle is respected, and the layovers are in general rather short. It is also good to see that the company, should conditions deteriorate to unacceptable levels, acts quickly to change layover destinations accordingly, like it just happened in SIN. The unpleasant examples for various reasons (e.g. location, unsafe environment, noise level, lack of nutrition) regarding unilateral management decisions are the current hotels in: SEA, LAX, DFW, JFK, MIA. Previous unilateral changes in ORD, DFW and ANC resulted in significant challenges and required us to try to mitigate certain deficiencies and ultimately the need to move again. Examples of successful changes in the past were IAH and KUL. 

Unfortunately, to ensure that the CWA and internal policies are respected, it will require a joint effort by you, our members, the Hotel Committee as well as the Divisional Board and finally the Unions, which we decided to involve trying to solve this pressing issue.  

Profit Share
We have been approached by some members regarding a rumour related to an alleged change of the Luxembourg’s taxation law for profit share schemes. This rumour is based on at least one article published on the internet already last year, which may give the wrong impression that the expected profit share for 2020 may be capped.

Without going into details, we would like to clarify, that the rumour is not correct and that the profit share formula agreed in the Collective Work Agreement is not affected by Luxembourg’s budget law for the year 2021. However, the 2021 budget law foresees an option for companies to provide a bonus system to their employees, which is tax deductible for the company and the employees who benefit from such a new scheme. 

Again, this is an optional new scheme, which does not negatively affect any existing profit share or bonus schemes, like the one stipulated in Art.13.4. of the Collective Work Agreement.

In order to clarify another rumour, we also would like to confirm that management NEVER approached the Unions with the suggestion to cap or reduce the profit share for 2020 and in return extend the current CWA beyond 2022. Besides, we would never agree to such a major concession without consulting our members first. 

Cargolux Divisional Assembly
In spring 2021, the next Cargolux Divisional Assembly will take place. After the regular two-year term also a new Cargolux Divisional Board will be elected at this assembly. Potentially, not all members of the board will stand for re-election, hence we would like to ask you to consider becoming a candidate for the election of the new Cargolux Divisional Board. If you are interested and want more information about the work of a board member/pilot representative, please send an email to cvboard@alpl.lu.

A separate invitation including more details and the agenda will be sent in due time.

In order to address the issues with allocation of V-Days (formerly known as “VOFF- Days”) in 2020 we agreed with Management to amend the allocation process for V-Days for 2021.

As the V-Days for 2021 have been published by now and in order to get a clear picture of the situation and compare the allocation of V-Days for 2021 with the allocation for 2020 to validate the changes made to the allocation process, we kindly ask you to complete a short survey.

Press on the button below or follow this link to access the survey. A short explanation of the survey data entry page can be found here.

Today it is our sad duty to remember all those who lost their lives in what has been so far the only fatal aircraft accident in Cargolux’s 50-year history.

In the afternoon of 01 December 1970 Captain Ómar Tómasson, First Officer Birgir Örn Jónsson, Flight Engineer Stefán Ólafsson andFlight Mechanic and Loadmaster Jean-Paul Tompers departed Luxemburg Airport for Hamburg in Germany piloting one of Cargolux’s first Canadair CL-44J aircraft registered TF-LLG.

In Hamburg 27,5 tons of food supplies were loaded on behalf of the International Red Cross. These supplies were to be flown to Dhaka, Bangladesh, to help victims of flooding caused by cyclone Bhola. A refuelling stop was made in Tehran, Iran, from where the aircraft departed at 01.30 UTC on 02 December to its final destination Dhaka. At approximately 10.00 UTC, the crew lost control of the airplane while on approach to Dhaka-Tejgaon Airport. The CL-44 crashed into farmhouses, killing three persons on the ground and the entire crew on board.

The accident investigation identified as probable cause that the hydraulic gust lock system was activated in flight, causing the flight controls to lock. It was speculated that hydraulic back pressure had built up caused by a malfunctioning switch valve when hydraulics where armed on descend.

In the last 50 years the airline industry and Cargolux have come a long way. Improved aircraft systems and pilot training together with safety management systems played an important role in increasing flight safety, consequently reducing the number of fatal accidents in the industry, with the result that the tragic accident of 1970 remained so far, the only fatal one in Cargolux’s history. 

While we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Cargolux amid the biggest crisis of the global airline industry and its impact, we shall not forget the importance to continuously strive for the highest level of professionalism to do what is necessary to mitigate risks in our operation.

In this update we would like to give you an overview of the following subjects: 

• Progressive early retirement scheme (préretraite progressive)
• Vacation bidding and allocation for 2021 

Progressive early retirement scheme
The Luxemburgish social system as well as our CWA foresees numerous attractive part time schemes as well as certain early retirement schemes.

With the average age of the pilot group increasing in the coming years, more colleagues might want to take advantage of the progressive early retirement scheme (préretraite progressive), which is available provided that certain requirements are met.

There are some restrictions and requirements in place, one is that the employee must have worked at least 75% of the normal working-time during the 5 years preceding the application for préretraite progressive and that he/she could go into retirement latest 3 years after entering the préretraite progressive. While obviously the minimum age requirement of 57 would be met easily, certain part time schemes in the later stage of someone´s career could represent a hurdle to qualify for the early retirement scheme.

Please keep this in mind especially when approaching retirement age.

We recommend getting in contact with us via cvboard@alpl.lu if you are uncertain about applying for a certain retirement or part time scheme or if you require more information. 

Vacation bidding and allocation for 2021
After the Two Step Vacation Bidding process it turned out, that not all vacation bids have been granted as requested. This resulted in a larger number of outstanding vacation days and some colleagues were left with only half of their yearly vacation entitlement allocated in 2021. 

Besides a minor technical issue of the system, one main reason was the lack of flexibility and alternatives put into the bidding system when placing the bids by individual pilots. This resulted in many bids not being considered by the system and therefore no vacation days being allocated because e.g. the slots were taken by colleagues with higher seniority or not available anymore after the first bidding round.

In a recent meeting with the VP Flight Operations, the new Head of Crew Planning and Pilot Representatives this issue was discussed and there is a common understanding that the vacation bidding and allocation process needs to be finetuned in order to increase the individual success rate and to reduce the outstanding vacation days in the future.

In a first step it was agreed, that after the allocation of the V-Days, a 3rd round for vacation bidding will be announced as soon as possible. In this round priority will be given to pilots who have been allocated less than 37 vacation days in 2021.

Subsequently, all pilots will be able to bid for outstanding vacation days as per the published “Two Step Vacation Bidding System”.

The implementation of new quarantine rules in Germany beginning last week highlight the need for a common approach to quarantine regulations in the EU for crew members involved in international air cargo operations.

During the 30 September 2020 video conference of EU Health Ministers, Commissioner Kyriakides identified a missing consistency of quarantine rules applied by the EU member states. The Commissioner explained in the same meeting that a European approach on quarantines should be the goal and that the Commission would present such an approach in the near future.

As many of our members are commuting from other countries to Luxembourg and back to their country of residence, common European rules providing us with exemptions are a necessity for us. We raised the issue with Luxembourg’s Ministry of Health, the Transport Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, pointing out the urgent need for clear rules.

In the meantime Germany implemented new rules. Unfortunately, due to the federal structure of the country, this resulted in 16 different ones. While Germany is only one country where many of our members reside, those residing in other countries might be affected by quarantine rules as well. 

Based on what is presently available we compiled a list available here, containing this information to the best of our knowledge for the countries where the majority of our members reside. If your country of residence is not listed, we recommend that you do your own research. In any case it will be the responsibility of the individual pilot to be aware about the applicable regulations and decide whether an exemption is applicable for your individual situation. We will try to keep this list up to date, as the situation will most likely remain dynamic in the weeks and possible months ahead.

As some regulations require quarantine or self-isolation, local health authorities may not always issue individual quarantine orders or sick leave certificates. If this should be the case, we recommend that you get in touch with either your personal physician or as published in the Chief Pilot’s Office update dated 17 November 2020 with Dr. Liethen in order to obtain a sick leave certificate and forward the same to the company.

On 09 November 2020 the fourth meeting referred to as “Tripartite pour le secteur de l ´aviation” took place. 
 
Since a principle agreement was reached in the meeting on 07 October 2020, Luxair and the Unions finalised in several meetings the details of the agreement, which was signed on 09 November 2020 by Luxair, the Unions and the government, affecting approximately 20% of Luxair’s current staff.
 
Half of the affected staff (265) will leave Luxair through one of the available early retirement schemes over the next three years.
 
The other half (approximately 300) should be requalified for other positions within Luxair or transferred to other companies, either on a permanent or temporary contract basis. At the same time the agreement provides the remaining staff at Luxair with a job guarantee for the duration of the agreement.
 
The rules for short-time work (chomage partiel) will be amended, allowing Luxair to place its remaining staff in short-time work during the restructuring process. This will amongst other staff affect all Luxair pilots, resulting in significant losses of income for our colleagues for un undetermined period of time.
 
Further to the Tripartite agreement, the Unions and Luxair Management agreed, that the Luxair Collective Work Agreement (CWA) will be renewed until the end of 2023, except for the annual time unit increases, which will be suspended for the three-year duration of the CWA extension.
 
Cargolux staff will not be directly affected by the Tripartite agreement or the restructuring at Luxair. Existing early retirement schemes, effectively at this time only the progressive early retirement scheme (préretraite progressive), will in principle remain available to qualifying Cargolux staff. In case you consider applying for this scheme, please get in touch with us.
 
It remains our position, which was clearly communicated again to the Managements of Cargolux and Luxair by the LCGB [link], that Luxair pilots who may become either permanently or temporary redundant, should be considered by Cargolux to fill open pilot positions. The examples of those colleagues of Lufthansa Cityline or Air Berlin, who joined Cargolux on fixed-term contracts, show what is possible and what did work in the past for the benefit of all involved; the airlines and the pilots. Again, to avoid any doubt, the ALPL Divisional Boards of Cargolux and Luxair agree, that such transfers can only be done respecting all provisions of the Cargolux CWA.

As of today, Wednesday 28 October 2020, voluntary rapid COVID-19 testing (R-Test) is available for all pilots prior to leaving Luxembourg on a rotation. As communicated before, we recommend making use of this possibility as this should help in reducing the risk of being quarantined while on a rotation.

The details regarding the testing have been published by Flight Operations Management. Please note the different days and changed times R-Tests can be done. 

We kindly ask you to consider the following recommendations, in order to protect yourself and avoid the risk of a possible self-isolation or quarantine, in case of a fellow colleague who reports for the same duty than you, would be tested positive:

• Arrive early enough to conduct the R-Test. The results should be available within 20 minutes of taking the test.

• Avoid contact with other crew members while waiting for the R-Test and the test result, by at least following the rules for maintaining social distancing (keep face-to-face contact to less than 15 minutes and maintain at least 2 meters distance).

On 23 October 2020 another COVID-19 meeting between the Delegation and Senior Management took place. COVID-19 cases in Luxembourg and most other parts of the world are increasing and we kindly ask you to take note of this important special members’ update.
 
Rostering
We did highlight the risk that comes with frequent changes of the crew composition during a rotation. In a particular example one pilot would meet 31 other pilots while on duty over a period of 11 consecutive days. This certainly increases the chance of being either infected or getting in contact with a positive case with the possible negative implication to the pilots’ health but also to the business, in case of several pilots would have to be quarantined.
 
We suggested that management should consider this fact when rostering pilots and further to schedule the annual Ground School Recurrent (GTR) as a distance learning course, like it was done earlier this year. This would also be in line with the re-introduction of work from home for ground staff.
 
COVID-19 testing prior leaving Luxembourg
We are delighted, that as of Wednesday 28 October 2020, voluntary rapid COVID-19 testing will be available for all pilots prior to leaving Luxembourg on a rotation. We communicated this request by our members in several meetings with management in the previous months. 
 
The testing prior to leaving home base should help in reducing the risk of being quarantined while on a rotation, hence we recommend making use of this possibility.
 
Initially two nurses have been contracted by the company to conduct these tests between 04.45h – 13.45h and 15.00h – 23.00h local times in the Lorang building. Results are expected to be available within 20 minutes. Please note that the test is on a voluntary basis and shall be done prior reporting for a duty.
 
The CEO explained that if a rapid test shows a positive result, the pilot would be taken off the planned duty. In this case the pilot would be required to self-isolate as per the applicable procedures.
 
Following a positive result, a voluntary PCR can be taken immediately in the Lorang building in order to validate the result of the rapid test. The result of the PCR test should be available within 24 to 48 hours.  We strongly recommend taking the PCR test in this case. In case the pilot decides to take the test, he is required to self-isolate until the test result is known. This could be done either at home or at a company provided hotel accommodation (accommodation only).
 
If the PCR test result would also be positive, the pilot is required to quarantine as per the applicable procedures. This could be done either at home or at the company provided hotel (accommodation only).
 
Whenever the company provided accommodation is used, either when waiting for the result of the voluntary PCR test or after a positive PCR test, management expects that the pilot would strictly follow the official quarantine rules.
 
Further details should be published in due course by management.
 
Layover
Socializing with other crew members during a layover is an important part of our daily life as crews and became even more important with the increased number of stations mandating in-room confinement for the entire duration of a layover. This leaves only very few destinations where we still can meet with fellow colleagues for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Unfortunately, this comes with an increased risk to get infected or spread an infection we are not aware about. This is especially true in a place like Novosibirsk, which became the station with the highest number of pilots laying over during a single day. 
 
It is therefore important that we all follow the known preventive measures, not only to protect ourselves and our loved ones, but also to prevent more and more colleagues become infected. 
 
We therefore ask all members to continue adhering to social distancing and the other preventive measures. This includes wearing a face mask on a layover, whenever social distancing is difficult to be maintained!

The most dominant issue in the last few weeks was the situation in HKG, including the wellbeing of our colleagues who were stuck in the hospital and in the quarantine center. This was covered by special updates to our members.

We hereby would like to provide you with some other topics in our monthly update, which might be of interest to you.

• In-Room Confinement Survey
• Future Crew Lounge and Check in Facilities
• Late Arrival before VAC 

In-room Confinement Survey
In early September we conducted a survey with the aim to get a clearer picture of how layovers at destinations with in-room confinement are distributed amongst the pilot community. More than 60% of our members participated in this survey, which represents a significant number of responses resulting in a high level of accuracy.

Please click here to have a look at the result that was also presented to Senior Management in the COVID-19 meeting in late September.

In summary we can say that in the period from July until September 2020: 

• Layovers were not evenly distributed within the pilot community 
• Only 20% of pilots stayed for an average number of days (5-6 days for BC; 6-7 days for FO)
• 44% of BC and 49% of FO stayed below the average number
• 36% of BC and 31% of FO stayed above there average number with up to 17 or 
  even 22 days in total
• Around 50% of layover days with in-room confinement were in BKK with most restrictive rules 

With this survey it became evident that crew planning and crew control must increase their efforts to mitigate the burden of in-room confinement for crews by scheduling such layovers more evenly,  as 1/3 of the pilots had to stay at destinations with in-room confinement for longer than 7 days, with peaks up to 22 days within 3 months.

With the recent changes of the rotations and the stop of HKG layovers we expect that for the time being the situation will slightly improve and that the duration of a rest period at a destination with in-room confinement most likely will be shorter now.

However, since the impact of in-room confinement is subjectively perceived differently, we recommend filing a proactive ASR should you feel that a repetitive and long layover with in-room confinement requirements would have a detrimental impact on your mental wellbeing and ability to safely operate your next flight(s). Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us via cvboard@alpl.lu  should you require any assistance.

Future Crew Lounge and Check in Facilities
In the Joint Delegation Meeting held on 22 September 2020, Pilot Representatives were informed that in April 2021 the crew facilities for pilots will be moved to the Passenger Terminal of Luxemburg Airport.

As the location and configuration of these crew facilities will be an important matter for us pilots and since this project is still in the planning phase, the Delegation requested in a letter to be part of the selection process. Please click here to read the letter, dated 29 September 2020. Unfortunately, until now we haven’t received a response yet.

Late Arrival before VAC
In general, vacation days are precious for every pilot as these are allocated strictly according to seniority and available slots – especially in the holiday season – are limited.

In recent discussions with the Chief Pilots Office we highlighted the spirit of Art. 36.17.1. of the CWA, namely, to protect any vacation period and to ensure that a pilot is scheduled to arrive at Home Base in due time before a vacation period commences. We also clarified when the compensation for late arrival at Home Base before a vacation period as per aforementioned article of the CWA should be applicable.

We are glad that there is a mutual understanding that pilots in general shall not work on vacation days and shall be scheduled to arrive back at Home Base as foreseen in Art. 36.17.1. of the CWA. Please note, neither the Luxembourgish labour law nor the CWA foresee the selling of vacation days.

However, there might be instances, where pilots are asked or are simply scheduled to return from a trip late prior the start of a vacation period. In order to avoid any misunderstandings about the compensation in those cases, we recommend sending a friendly reminder to crew control stating, that you do not agree to fly into any of your vacation days. Crew control will then reschedule the pilot to ensure an arrival at Home Base according to Art. 36.17.1 of the CWA. In this case, any late arrival will be compensated as per aforementioned article.

If a pilot agreed to fly into his/her vacation day(s), compensation for late arrival into a vacation period as per Art. 36.17.1. of the CWA would not be applicable. In such cases, the affected vacation day(s) would be swapped on paper with Off-Days in the respective roster period and compensation as foreseen in Art. 36.16.2. b) 3. of the CWA would be applied.

Your ALPL Board is relieved to see that all four colleagues, who have been quarantined in Hong Kong since 25 September 2020 have safely been repatriated back to Luxembourg.

We would like to take this opportunity and thank all parties involved. This includes the Cargolux Human Factors manager and OH&S in Luxembourg, our colleagues from Hong Kong ALPA and the Cargolux CEO. A special thanks goes to our colleagues at Cargolux Operations in HKG, who played an important role liaising with the local authorities and last but not least Luxembourg’s ministry of Foreign Affairs for their support. 

It remains our position, that layovers in Hong Kong shall remain suspended until it can be guaranteed by Cargolux management in writing, that no pilot would face a similar situation in the future. The Delegation and the LCGB communicated this expectation of our members to the Cargolux Senior Management.