CA1 Unpacked - Volume 1 (Duty RIGs and How Pairing Credit Is Calculated )

RIGs (or Ratio in Guarantee) exist in the world of aviation scheduling to ensure compensation for crew members, especially when their actual flight time is low compared to the time they spend on duty or away from base.

HISTORY: 
Prior to the ratification of CA1, WestJet Cabin Personnel’s schedules were based solely on block hours. Deadheads were paid at 50% as they are today, but only to the Cabin Personnel originally scheduled the deadhead.  

Adapting duty period minimums, including deadhead value to daily reconciliation, as well as a variety of RIGs have had a tremendous value added to our scheduling world. With that being said, they’re still commonly misunderstood and we hope to change that for us all.  

The following information can be found in Article 41-5, Pairing Reconciliation, but let’s explore the terms we use every day when looking at our schedules.  

DEFINITIONS: (found in Article 2 of the Collective Agreement)

Duty Period: The total time in a daily period the Cabin Personnel is at work, calculated from the report time to the release time. 

Block Hours: The value of the operated flights, scheduled and calculated by the out-event to the in-event of each flight segment. 

Credit Hours: The unit of time that Cabin Personnel earns for pay and scheduling purposes includes the multitude of factors that we’re going to cover.  

MDPC: The Minimum Duty Period Credit, which is 4 hours.  

Here is the current CA language that we will expand on and explain in greater detail, with examples.  

41-5 PAIRING RECONCILIATION 

41-5.01 A Cabin Personnel will be credited the greater of their originally scheduled Credit Hours of the entire pairing or the Credit Hours actually operated by the Cabin Personnel over the entire pairing. Any increase in pairing Credit pursuant to this provision will be considered monthly scheduling period credit growth.  

41-5.02 The original scheduled Credit Hours of the pairing is calculated as the combined total Credit Hours of all the scheduled duty periods in the pairing or one (1) Credit Hour for each four (4) hours of scheduled time away from base (TAFB) in the pairing (“Trip RIG”), whichever is greater.  

The original scheduled Credit Hours of each individual duty period will be the greater of:

    a) The scheduled Block Hours, plus any Deadhead Credit, in the duty period,  

    b) The minimum duty period credit (“MDPC”) of four (4) Credit Hours, or;  

    c) Fifty percent (50%) of the scheduled duty time in the duty period (“Duty RIG”)  

41-5.03 The actual operated Credit Hours of the pairing is calculated as the combined total Credit Hours of all the operated duty periods in the pairing or one (1) Credit Hour for each four (4) hours of actual TAFB in the pairing (“Trip RIG”), whichever is greater.  

The actual operated Credit Hours of each individual duty period will be the greater of:  

    a) The actual Block Hours, plus any Deadhead Credit, completed in the duty period,  

    b) The MDPC of four (4) Credit Hours, or;  

    c) Fifty percent (50%) of the actual duty time completed in the duty period (“Duty RIG”) 

COMMON MISCONCEPTION 

Q- “The block time and credit hours of my pairing are the same. Where’s the RIG?”  

A - This is a common misconception that all pairings have a RIG or minimum attached to them. What’s important to remember is that the credit hours of a duty period or a pairing will always be the GREATER OF any of these calculations.  

IMPORTANT NOTE: Only a “TRIP RIG” will be reflected on Flica specifically, while the MDPC and Duty Rig will not. This information is included in the Final Bid Packages released by the Company for bidding purposes, covered at the end of this document.  

MINIMUM DUTY PERIOD CREDIT vs MINIMUM DAILY CREDIT: These are two very distinct concepts; we do not currently have a minimum daily credit, but instead use a minimum duty period credit, meaning that the minimum credit value is only associated with duty periods within a particular pairing. A red-eye duty period as an example might cover two different days, but is reconciled as only one duty period. 

DEEPER DIVE 

Below we will list real world examples using actual pairings and see where these improvements have and will continue to benefit us. 

EXAMPLE ONE: 

 This pairing has several examples that highlight the application of the topics discussed above, and highlight the benefits to Cabin Personnel: 

• Day 1: DH YYC – YQR: This daily duty period is now reconciled at the duty period minimum of 4 hours because even though the deadhead was credited at 50% of the flight time, the greater of the 2 possible calculations is the 4-hour MDPC (minimum duty period credit).  

• Day 2: YQR – YYC / YYC – YYT: In this case, no RIG or minimums are credited as the value of the flying is the greatest possible value. 

• Day 3: DH YYT – YYZ / YYZ - YHZ: This one is a little harder to catch! The operated leg was only worth 2:10 and the deadhead was credited at 2:20, so why is the day worth 4:35? The duty period for the day is 9:10, and when you divide that by 2 for the “Duty Rig” of 50% of the duty day, it works out to 4:35! 

• Day 4: YHZ – YYC: No RIGs or minimums as the flying block time is the greatest value 

Summary: Looking at the TBLK (Total Block) for the entire pairing, the value is 14:46. Without any RIGs or minimums in the agreement (aka how it used to be), that would be the value of this pairing. However, when we look at the TCRD (Total Credit) value of 21:11, it has summarized the duty period credit values and provided the Cabin Personnel 6:25 worth of credit value they wouldn’t have had before! 

EXAMPLE TWO: 

 This 4-day pairing (with only 3 duty periods) provides some more examples and explanations! 

• Day 1: YYC –LAX: Because the value of the flight operated falls below the Minimum Duty Period Credit of 4 hours, the value of that day is increased to 4:00. 

• Days 2 and 4 both exceed the MDPC value of 4 hours.  

Summary: When added together, the daily credit values of all the duty periods only total 13:10. So why is this pairing worth 17:55? The TRIP RIG now becomes the greatest possible pairing reconciliation value, as the TAFB/4 ratio equating to 17:55.  

Again, using only TBLK (Total Block) times, this pairing would have 5:23 less value towards the value of the pairing.  

EXAMPLE THREE: 

Lastly, we’ll look at this one-day turn. In this case, there are no minimums or RIGs applied as the value of the flying is the highest possible pairing and duty period value. 

As mentioned at the beginning, RIGs and daily minimums are vital to protecting the value of a crew member’s time by ensuring proper credit values are associated with all our pairings. This doesn’t mean that every pairing or duty period has a RIG attached to them! However, RIGs and daily minimums ensure that appropriate value is attached to each pairing and duty period, enhancing our schedules and time at work.  

CARRY OVER PAIRINGS 

Another common source of confusion is how credit is applied to carry over pairings, specifically when a TRIP rig is present on a specific pairing.  

The example above has several important things to take note of. This is a 4-day pairing with only 3 duty periods, with an extended layover in YQR. But most importantly, there is a TRIP rig applied to the entire pairing, as the TAFB/4 calculation yields the highest possible value as it’s more than the sum of the 3 duty periods.  

However, this pairing also started in July and finishes in August. For bidding and trading purposes, only the credit values for the duty periods in the preceding month count towards in this case July’s schedules. All remaining credit values, including the TRIP RIG are applied to the following month, in this case August. In this example, 4:00 would be applied to the Cabin Personnel’s July schedule, with the remaining 10:27 applied to August. 

BIDDING: 

Lastly, to review how these values apply to each pairing, an important graphic is included with each bid package each month.  

On here, several important values are highlighted specifically with the purple circles and lines.  

Duty periods with a ‘L’ indicate that no RIG or minimum is applied 

Duty periods with a ‘M’ indicate that the MDPC is applied 

Duty periods with a ‘R’ indicate the Duty Rig is applied 

And finally, 

A ‘T’ is shown next to the Credit Time value of a pairing if the Trip Rig is applied to the whole pairing, and if it doesn’t a ‘D’ would be placed next to the Credit Time value.  

Note: This communication is in English as the language in the Collective Agreement is negotiated in English and applied in English (Article 51-2). If you have questions about the content within, please reach out to your base representative and we will connect you to a French speaking Union representative to provide any clarification and support on these topics. We are committed to and will continue to provide bargaining updates in both official languages.

In Unity,

WestJet Bargaining Committee

Alia Hussain - President
Bryan Hansraj - WestJet Unit VP
Jean-Francois Laframboise - YVR/YEG Rep
Shane Campbell - YYC Rep
Justin Patterson - YYZ Rep
Cailey Millard - YWG/YUL Rep
Alex Grigoriev - Local Executive (Alternate)
Cameron Jones - Local Executive (Alternate)