Airline Ops - Mike Gough

SENIORITY FILLING A DEAD MAN’S SHOES

Promotion based on Seniority is not liked by minorities.

Ihad dutifully arrived early, dressed in my civilian finest – an ill-fitting suit that I had also used for that all-important interview a few months earlier. I was the youngest of my group, and the only non-SAAF pilot, tacked onto this intake almost as an afterthought.

We wandered around the passageways of the training section, and cheekily stuck our heads into the simulator hall to ogle the very serious looking Boeing 747 Classic simulator that was to be our first assignment in the airline, as third (or ‘boy’) pilots.

Around nine that morning, we were let into a classroom, and the welcomes and procedural stuff started. One of the first items up for discussion was a concept that was completely alien to me at the time – that of Seniority.

I had previously been flying for a tiny airline that had five aircraft and around 20 pilots. I had joined as what I subsequently learned to be referred to as a DEC, or Direct

We were told to report for duty, Room 109, at 0700, Monday 3

November 1997. There was, of course, absolutely no-one there except the seven of us in my intake, all looking a little lost. Things in this government department did not start until 0830 at the earliest.

Entry Captain. This particular operation had no seniority list, and the current first officers either lacked the hours or the Airline Transport Pilot licence required to become captain. I had managed to crack the nod on both counts.

I had never flown a twin turbine, and certainly nothing as seemingly complicated and fire-breathing as the solid Let 410. However, three weeks and fifty hours later from the right-hand seat, I was not only signed out as P1 on the aircraft but also as instructor. It was just how things worked there, in a small, rapidly expanding operation.

The significance of the discussion that we entered into that first day of being in a ‘real’ airline was, at the time, still a little lost on me, but ended up with me being officially awarded the most junior place of my intake. As the seven of us were all joining on the same day, we had to fight it out between us as to who would be who in our new zoo.

The method used was firstly, who had an ATP? We all did. Next was using Wings date (for the ex-SAAF guys) or date of gaining the civilian CPL, in my case. Thus, I ended up at the bottom of my particular pile and was officially awarded seniority number 701. As there were then 701 pilots in the airline, I also had the very un-prestigious role of being the most junior pilot in the entire outfit.

For what it’s worth, I’m now officially number 213, but realistically around 190, due to the last year’s attrition. Moving 511 places in 22.5 years indicates an average loss of 23 pilots per year. Hardly an eye watering pace of moving up the ranks which is testament to the solid operation, and consequent lack of desire to leave, that we used to have within the national carrier.

Of the seven of us who joined, however, only three of us remain active on the seniority list. An early retirement, a resignation, and recently contract flying and one death, has seen our numbers dwindle. RIP Gus.

So, what has seniority done for me in the past twenty-two and a half years? In a

nutshell, it has maintained law and order and essentially allowed the airline to function. As illustrated, it is significant in terms of longevity, or retention of the pilot group – good for any clear-thinking management team.

It’s a peg to hang one’s hat on, a confirmed place in the queue for all things airline. Promotions, upgrades from copilot to captain, fleet choice, operating base choice, leave bidding and monthly roster preferences are all rooted in seniority.

Seniority is pilot union driven, versus the HR department taking these decisions. In the latter, for those airlines globally that have non-pilot individuals calling these shots for the pilots, a so-called meritocracy exists. The problem being that differing standards of morals and ethics define what ‘merit’ is in different ways from one group of individuals to the next.

Yes-men, drinking and golfing buddies of HR, being ‘go-orientated’ in terms of dubious levels of aircraft serviceability, brown-nosing and outright corruption become the order of the day in such decisions for promotion and other perks and functions.

There is, at present a concerted move to dissolve the seniority list and completely remove all current terms and conditions of employment for the pilot group. But replace seniority with what?

Chaos is not a system.

If South Africa was a bastion of anticorrupt and totally moral behaviour, we would potentially have less to be concerned about, however…

Earnest K. Gann, in his epic book Fate is The Hunter, refers to his early airline days in the late 1940s and early 1950s and the effect the seniority system had on his career. He was not a fan of system, but generally those at the bottom of the list wanting to move at a pace faster than 23 places a year, are not. However, as our national carrier has had its seniority system in place since the same time as Gann was part of one, it gives a sense of the structure that a traditional airline gravitates towards.

Gann left his seniority-based airline for another that made its decisions at managements’ and HR’s whim, and this essentially ended his airline career.

As I mentioned, I started at absolute rock bottom, paid my dues and steadily moved up from P3, to domestic P2, long range P2 and presently domestic P1 on the A320 fleet. When my number came up to join the training section, I put up my hand and jumped through all the requisite hoops to be appointed. Having a Grade One instructor rating and current DFE status at the time certainly helped. That was 17 years ago during the introduction of the A340 fleet, or around six years into my tenure at our national carrier.

Around the world, various versions of seniority and non-seniority abound. A US major has the ‘up or out’ principle when it comes time to move from the right seat to the left. This essentially does not allow the seniority-based time for upgrade, the option of turning it down and using the position of super-senior first officer to enhance one’s lifestyle.

Similarly, it is generally accepted that a maximum of two attempts be given to the upgrade candidate, and if one tanks on the second attempt, an airline or career change is required.

Should one choose another airline, one starts at the bottom, if a seniority system is involved.

Removing this system exposes us as pilots in a not-so glowing light. Whether we would like to blame our so-called A-type personality, super competitiveness or just plain greed, we see non-seniority airlines having their pilot group non-unified, and ready to trample on the co-worker and stick the knife in whenever the option for any promotion is on the cards.

This plays out well for an HR department that would prefer non-unionism and a workforce that can be swayed with make him or her captain out of seniority, and place this newly minted commander in the same cockpit as the bypassed first officer. Being the professionals that I hope we all are, the first officer should still point out looming issues in a level cockpitgradient way. However, depending on the individual bitterness involved, waiting for the new captain to screw up and have an incident may well be the order of the day.

extending unequal favour. Divide and rule at its best. The consequences of this for the non-pilot type is certainly not fully grasped. Flight safety in any airline is paramount. Whether senior management, HR or the airline board like it or not, pilots are the gatekeepers of flight safety.

Let’s now place a super-junior first officer way above a senior first officer and

Seniority means having to wait for pilots to retire - or die - before you can be promoted. No matter what your skin colour.

It’s happened before in other airlines, and the threat to safety cannot be ignored.

In the interests of balance allow me to point out that seniority systems are also not without faults. A frequent criticism is that a mediocre individual will become a captain ahead of a much more capable individual, if proficiency is demonstrated and seniority position allows. The ‘more capable’ guy just has to wait his turn.

That’s where training and checking has always had its ultimate responsibility, fairness and firmness without fear or favour. But that’s a discussion for another time.

In the end the arguments for the seniority system are circular with some pointing out its shortcomings versus talking up its benefits. Your perception of it would be directly influenced as a result of your individual position within the system and with your particular peer group’s agenda.

The great thing about seniority is that it is largely free of political interference and in our country, anything that is politicised cannot be trusted.

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Yet this is all pretty moot as the airline continues to crater. Should any form of sustainable entity arise from the selfinduced ashes of a once great airline, certain principles that have been proven globally to work, cannot be unilaterally discarded. So, let’s not mess with the seniority system, we have way bigger issues to deal with at present.

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