Pathetic.bluecoolaid wrote:Finally have a day off to update you. Already some of the information in my earlier post is out of date.
Yes the matrix is correct.
Our compensation review came out over the weekend. What changed? The number of companies that WestJet used to compare our salaries to was increased. As a policy we will maintain industry -10% payscales. FO's got a cost of living increase of 1%. Captains got a 4% lift to bring them more inline with their industry peers (less 10%).
Pay scales now go out to 5 years which will be important for anyone coming on board now. With between 150-200 pilots on property by the end of the year, it will take anywhere from 3 to 10 years to flow up regardless of what seat you occupy. My guess is that they'll slowly increase the flow to 50% next year, maybe 75% the year after and then 100% in year three. If that's the case, someone in the summer ground schools would likely wait about four years to move up. This is just a guess based on rumours.
Also, the employee stock purchase plan will be maintained at half of the WestJet ESPP. It was felt that we are competitive without increasing this to the level of our peers.
In summary, the gist of the compensation review as I read it is steady-as-she-goes, with a small increase to attract Direct Entry Captains. Since there were not big policy changes, I'm guessing that Encore is still able to attract pilots with sufficient experience.
Management keeps referring to us as a new startup airline. It would be nice if they'd acknowledge that we're not new. We're really a mature successful airline adding a second aircraft type. If you frame the conversation in this way, you'd get a whole new perspective.
Not you - Encore. Looks like there is no learning curve at YYC HQ. I continue to hope that pilots will show restraint and DO NOT APPLY TO ENCORE.
Eventually when WJ realizes that they will be parking Q400 deliveries, the pay will have to rise to industry standard.
p.s. it is clearly time for a real pilot union at WJ and Encore.
