4 ms·

At most airlines there are two sets of scheduling rules. The regulatory rules, and the union contract negotiated rules. You can guess which one the company does

• fn-mote 4y ago
  Perhaps surprisingly, I can't. Violating "regulatory rules" should result in fines and the government coming down on you. I would think this is the worse outcome, but less likely than... Violating "union contract negotiated rules" should result in grievances ending in legal action if the employer doesn't agree they broke the rules. This should be a lighter penalty but the union seems more likely to pursue the remedy than the government. So which actually is it that the company considers worse?
  • bronco21016 4y ago
    Violating union contract rules requires the company to be called out on it. When the scheduling tools they provide to employees are archaic, strings of text spaghetti, and the contract is extremely complex, the likely hood of being called out on a violation by an employee is relatively low. Grievance settlements are often just a small amount of pay hours paid out for days off that are lost. Like maybe 4 hours of flight pay per day that there was an error. I’m not suggesting they willfully violate the contract either. Many of the schedulers are simply ignorant of the nuances in the rules because they’re complex. They are just trying to get trips covered. When employees are armed with knowledge greater than the scheduler(tools such as this, or often just experience) you end up with phone arguments/discussions that cause delays and cancellations. The company would far rather that they keep moving the jets and settle grievances for the handful of people that catch issues after the fact.