Nuffsaid412 wrote:
Imagine if all the companies started paying the award. No more, no less.
Would you work for that?Reality check:
Assume a pilot pays $800/month apartment rent
$800/year car insurance
$250/week for car payment
$130/week for groceries
$450 every 3 months for electricty
$185 every 3 months for water
$172 every couple months for phone and internet
$450 to renew his Medical every year
Super Fund contribution
et cetra
At the end of the year, if he is paid award, what is he left with? You do the math. Part of the reason Aviation has one of the highest divorce rates is the financial stress pilots are under trying to get ahead in Aviation whilst trying to maintain a relationship.
The government and folks with your mentality should never wonder why people would rather sit on their asses at home, drink beer, smoke pot and collect the dole.
The FWA specification should be taken as the
minimum award and not the maximum.
How much can any operator afford to train and retrain, because the operator cannot keep pilots whom move on for greener pastures?
One more consideration is that Insurance companies dictate who flies what, based on meeting certain minimum experience criterion.
When operators cannot get the kind of experience they need walking through their door, and they end up with hot starts, blade strikes, and bent metal, they might consider offering more money.
Pilots with low hours and a fresh Commercial Pilot Licence are entitled to at least receiving the government mandated award (pay) rate and nothing less, or the employer should write a contract specifying a period of time a new pilot must serve to work off his training costs and the cost of higher insurance premiums, but to pay less and expect a new pilot to just accept it, because he is desperate to build flying hours, is unethical.
Pay peanuts, get monkeys.