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UPDATE AS OF FEB 2003 - AS THE CURRENT FINANCIAL STATUS OF THE AIRLINES HAVE CAUSED SOME OF US TO TAKE PAY CUTS, I WANTED TO SHOW  BOTH REGULAR WAGES AS WELL AS THE LOWER TEMPORARY WAGE.  THEREFORE I WILL KEEP THE ORIGINAL CONTRACT WAGE LISTED, BUT WILL SHOW THE REDUCED RATE IN RED IN THE SAME BOX.  FOR EXAMPLE: WITH UNITED THE BASE WAGE WAS $30.28-$30.94 BUT WITH THE CONCESSIONS IT IS NOW 25.70 - 26.25

Current contract was effective March 2006
Contract expires June 2008

Goodies: Medical/Dental/Life Ins/Tuition/401K/Pension Plan 13.25% of gross pay company contributes/Stock Purchase Plan /4-week vacation to start/13 holidays/65 sick days a year/Year round golf, Warm Weather & great fishing.

Airbus is open 24/7 except Xmas and New Years Day.  Technicians can work 4/3 or 5/2 work weeks. Pay scale is 9 years but most new hires start at year 6-9 with experience. New union contract clause; once a year company can move employee above the set contractual rates and above the top rate based on exceptional skill and performance reviews.

Complete Benefits. Free Medical no co-pay, out-of-pocket or monthly costs (It's a French company). Dental plan, Life insurance, free prescription glasses. 
65 sick days a 52 week period. 
Tuition reimbursement of $5,250 a year includes books. 
Pension plan: Airbus offers employees 13.25% of their gross pay. 4 Weeks vacation to start. 13 Holidays. 
Airbus pays for 50% of health club membership.

Retirement figures:   The compensation used for calculating a member's retirement benefit will be the average of the highest forty eight (48) consecutive months of pay out of the one hundred and twenty (120) consecutive months of pay preceding the date of retirement. The definition of the compensation used to determine the forty eight (48) and one hundred and twenty (120) month periods is unchanged. Various formulas exist for benefits, e.g., 1.667% X Final Average Earnings X Years of credited service, which are also unchanged.

Eligibility For Benefits - Early Retirement
A member will be eligible for early retirement on or after attaining the earlier of: a. age 55 and fifteen (15) years of credited service; or b. age 60 and ten (10) years of credited service.

Early Retirement Benefits: Pension benefits determined as of early retirement will be reduced 3% for each year that the member is less than age 60.

bonuses or extra goodies that affect overall pay & benefits:

-       Flight Bennies:
-       Sick Leave and Occupational Injury Leave: Sick leave of 2 ½ days for the first 6 months of service and 1 day per month thereafter up to 5 days per year; Up to a maximum of one hundred and eighty (180) days.. Payment for sick leave will be at 50% of the hours for the first sixteen (16) hours of any single occurrence.

-       Paid Holidays: 5 paid holidays; 1.5x for holiday worked.
-       Paid Vacation: Vacation schedule as follows: 1 wk after 1 yr service; 2 after 5; 3 after 10; 4 after 17; 5 after 5; and 6 after 30.

-       Severance Pay: 3 weeks after 1 or 2 years of completed years of service plus 1 week per year of  additional service thereafter up to 13 weeks.

-       Layoff Recall Rights: 10 years

Contract located here

AMERICA WEST SIMULATOR SHOP
Note: AW has merged with USAir and pay/contracts are pending as of 07/2006
see USAirways details at the bottom of this page for updates.

Base Salary Range:
   Sim Tech $13.29 to 22.99
   Sr. Sim Tech  $14.28-25.73
Shop is located approximately 1/2 mile to the west of Phoenix Sky Harbor airport.
Shop is 24x7
No minimum license requirements.
Currently has 7 FFS maintained by AWA with one additional (privately owned) in the high bay but not maintained by AWA.
Simulator Technicians are Salaried, no overtime.
Payday is every two weeks on Friday.
Tuition reimbursement is not currently offered.
Everyone starts with two weeks vacation per year and ten sick days

SHOP LOCATED IN ATLANTA, GA (ATL)
$30.93 FIGURE BASED ON BASE SALARY MONTHLY RATE OF $5362.00
$3.00 SKILL PREMIUM FIGURE BASED ON FIGURE OF $520.00 PER MONTH
$2.88 LEAD TECH PREMIUM FIGURE BASED ON AVERAGE OF $500.00 PER MONTH
LEADS ARE NOW CALLED SUPERVISORS
$30.93 BASE PAY + $3 SKILL + $2.88 LEAD + .30 LONGEVITY (BASED ON 10 YEARS @5.20 A MONTH) EQUALS "TOTAL PAY WITH PREMIUM & LEAD"

SHOP LOCATED IN MEMPHIS, TN (18 DEVICES IN TWO LOCATIONS); IS 24/7 OPERATION.  ALSO 1 DEVICE IN ANCHORAGE, AL (ANC); THAT SHOP IS 7 DAY/12 HOUR OPERATION.
STARTING PAY BASED ON EXPERIENCE.  PAY STRUCTURE BASED ON THREE GRADE LEVELS.  

Note on Base Pay:  All positions are salaried and are paid on the 15^th and last day of the month.  3 pay grades are AVERAGES for top of scales as of 2005.

Note on Premium Pay:  $550 ‘Flt. Sim. Pay’ is payable on last payday of any month where majority of days in month tech was employed and not on disability.

 Note on Future Pay:  Raises are given annually and based on performance reviews; can be 1% - 3.5%.

 Note on Retirement:  Company contributes 5% - 8% of annual pay to employee’s account.  Percentage based on ‘age + years of service’ formula.  Interest paid on account quarterly and will not be less than 4% per annum.  Any cash balance is payable to employee when employment is terminated.

 Note to Bonuses/Extra Benefits:
~Tuition Asst. $3,550 / year
~2 – 5 wks vacation / year
~6 set holidays plus 4 other days employee can designate
~Health benefits Immediate
~401K; comp match = .50 on the dollar, maximum company match = $500.00
~Jumpseat for employee only is free (will be re-instated early in 2004); discounts with many airlines
~Pre-tax dollar deductions set aside in savings account to pay for eligible medical expenses and dependent care expenses

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES SIMULATOR SHOP

Southwest Airlines has shown to be the strongest airline in past 3 years and the sim shop has continued to hire techs since 2001 -  unlike most of the other airline sim shops who have seen layoffs and concessions since the 9/11 disaster.

The shop is based in Texas, so no state income tax helps the pay situation, so does the cost of medical insurance.  HMO plan costs an Employee with a family a total of $22.50 per month for medical, no Kids? Its down to $18.00, Just you? Nothing, no cost to you at all.

Add into the pay the Stock Options a Sim Tech gets, Profit Sharing (was roughly 3k for the year for 2002 (paid in 2003).

Techs currently work 4 10-hour days, add in an extra half-hour for lunch. Everyone works on Wednesdays. Here’s the current breakdown:
Mid Shift A Saturday Night arrive @ 10:30 PM, get off at 9 AM. Done for the week Wednesday morning at 9 AM.
Mid Shift B Tuesday night arrive @ 10:30 PM, get off at 9 AM. Done for the week on Saturday morning at 9 AM
Day Shift A First day of work starts on Sunday morning @ 7:00 AM, go home at 5:30 PM. Done for the week Wednesday @ 5:30 PM
Day Shift B First day of work starts Wednesday morning @ 7:00 AM, go home at 5:30 PM. Done for the week on Saturday @ 5:30 PM
Swing (Evening) Shift A First day starts Sunday @ 2 PM, they leave at 12:30 AM done for the week after their Wednesday shift.
Swing shift B First day starts Wednesday @ 2 PM, they leave at 12:30 AM done for the week after their Saturday shift.
Shifts are bid by seniority, there are currently 5 people on both Mids A and B, 2 People on Eves A and B as well as Days A and B. With the hiring of 4 more technicians I anticipate a total of 12 Mid Shift Lines of time, 6 Evening Shift Lines of time and keeping 4 as the Day shift total.
Contractually, the shifts are limited to 5-on 2-off, 4-on 3-off or 8-on-6 off. The Techs here at Southwest have found the 4 on 3 off the best option.

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THIS PAGE WAS LAST UPDATED: 04/17/2008