First I want to say that I am not an advocate of the overtime averaging system. I think its a crock but after questioning it myself I discovered that there are some sneaky ways for the employer to justify their actions. I agree with Jetboy and feel the way that some operators apply the averaging system is wrong (seasonal ops), but they tend to hide behind that rule and it discourages the average person from fighting it.
co-joe wrote:
I was always under the impression that salaried pilots/ employees are not eligible to receive overtime pay regardless of how many hours they work. This averaging thing, do you mean to say all those years I worked 30 on 3 off in the 703 world I could have been getting or been eligible to receive more than my salary? What about rotational work?
No that is not true, you are eligitable provided you have not signed a contract(s). Look up Federal labour laws online it will help abit, your best bet is make a call and ask some questions and you will be suprised what you here. If your going to stand up for yourself, you are going to lose your job( its just reality). Make sure you have documentation of duty times or you don't stand a chance. If your not willing to go that far then find a job that will pay you what is fare and what your happy with, piss on your former employer he's screwing you anyway. DHC
Co-joe, were you working all of those 30 days or were you on call for 30 days? I personally don't agree with it, but I think only duty hours would work towards your 2080 hours a year and the overtime you would be allowed to collect. Time spent on call is not hours worked (although I have been on call in a medevac ops and I agree that even though the company doesn't think on call is work time, its certainly not time off either, but thats another problem with the industry).
And DHC isn't quite right either. No, I am not getting a hate on, but I have actually been on the other end of the stick, in a different industry, working with an overtime averaging agreement for salaried employees. Granted, I will admit that this was provincial labour laws and governed differently from the federal laws that govern aviation, but I think the message is the same.
The company I worked at was being audited for our employees working a 2 week in 2 week out 12 hours a day rotation. We paid our employees a good salary which we came up by averaging their hours over a year. I forget the figures, but we paid employees X dollars an hour and because of their schedule they worked over 2100 hrs a year, their salary was X an hour for 2080 and the extra hours at 1.5X.
We thought we were doing our employees a favour because, instead of just paying them one big pay check for when they worked, we gave them a regular semi monthly check based on their annual salary. If someone was asked to work an extra week, they were paid an overtime rate for all hours worked in addition to their regular salary pay.
In the audit the labour relations people weren't questioning the salary, or the overtime agreement, but they were very concerned with our employment contracts. In that contract we only included the employee's salary for the year and didn't mention how we were averaging an hourly rate over the year and that the salary actually included some overtime. They wanted us to go back and pay every employee their overtime based on their hourly wage that they had signed in the contract (Salary/2080). When it was explained to them how we came up with the salary figure, they told us that that was fine, but
an employment contract cannot break labour law and because we were pushing back, they wanted us to pay every employee the overtime we owed them every week because our employment contract was invalid. Essentially, because we didn't mention the averaging in our contract, even though we had a valid agreement, they wanted us to back pay overtime for every employee we had based on a 8 and 40 hour work week. Major mula!
From my experience with Labour Relations, no employment contract can break the law, period. Signed or otherwise. Even if you've signed a contract saying you don't get paid overtime it is not a legal contract because it does break the law. Some professionals (like accountants and managers) are also entitled to overtime. Its common practise that these people are not paid overtime in addition to their salary 'because its an expectation of their job'. If these people were to keep track of their time the would also have a case with labour relations, but most don't because they don't want to rock the boat and justify their lack of overtime with things like bonus'.
I could probably go on and on with regards to this, but if you want to collect your overtime
(and likely loose your job for rocking the boat), contact a good labour lawyer and see if you have a case. If enough people can successfully do this we can either change the industry or sink some companies. You have the right to collect overtime if its owed to you, however, if you are happy with what you make, or don't want to rock the boat, there's no one who'll fight the battle for you. Unless you get a union, but thats a different ball of wax. Its unfortunate for the young guys out there being taken advantage of and its a big reason why I got out. Now I get paid overtime and make enough money to buy my own small plane and fly where and when I want. Its all about choice.
Sorry, just read over this again and realized that I was being a bit harsh. My intention is not to be an advocate for the owner, but to hopefully bring to light some of the obstacles out there that make it difficult to change. There are some barriers out there and the 'rocking the boat' reference is more of a warning to be careful and fully committed should you make waves. I wish I had the balls to do it. I worked for a skydive operator that had me sign a contract for a really pitiful salary to be on the drop zone 7 days a week for 6 months. I wish I had the balls to confront the owner about his pitiful pay and poor working conditions, but he had more resources then me if I wanted to fight it (he was a lawyer too) and I was able to start my own private business doing something else in my free time that actually paid me double what he did so I was able to make the best of the flight time I got while being there. Please accept my words of encouragement and I hope that you can do something to make things better for the industry. I wish i could think of the best way of doing it and hopefully one day I will
DHC
, and secondly, a 61 year old pilot with a self-proclaimed golden parachute after 20 years with canada Post who undoubtedly was paid overtime and who probably enjoyed some of the countries best benefits too 
, 2 thumbs up, you really make the world a better place.
