To add to my previous post.
Management already has access to data that will prevent accidents via the FOQA and ASAP program.
To Senator Grandstand's dismay, neither true safety program protects pilots from the willful violations and disregard to procedures to which he, and skydog2, allude to.
The longer I am in this series of jobs we string together to make a career, the general public's ignorance to what we do never ceases to astound me.
No matter what, they only look at our time off, and use that as an excuse to expose us to things no one else would tolerate.
OSHA requirements that almost every other workplace subscribes to? Not us. Even the most basic desk jobs fall under these rules. Probably even Senator Grandstand and skydog2. That is just one example I can think of off of the top of my head. If I stopped for a minute and put any thought into it, I'm sure there would be an extensive list.
They pull this "legislation" under the guise of public safety. However, on the other hand, it is fine that we work 16+ hour shifts. It is also OK that our employers are not required to provide food and water on the job. But, it IS OK in the eyes of some, that we are snooped on.
Let's say Senator Grandstand's bill passes. Then what? What are the parameters of monitoring CVRs? What flights? How long?
And the one that employers really care about...Who pays for this? Say a plane averages 10 hours of block a day. Delta has 600 airplanes. That's 6000 hours of analysis a day required. And you can't have average joe analyze this data. You need someone well versed in operations and THAT specific company's procedures.
Let's say you have someone that works 8 hours a day (they are only productive for 7+00 since they are afforded a time without working for lunch.). That's about 858 people for Delta to hire. That's 1,784,640 man hours a year. Say the average salary is $30,000 (which would be less than 50% of what that job is worth with the prerequisites), that's a budget of $25,740,000 just for salary. Add 30% for employer provided benefits, and it's $33,462,000.
Oh, then you need to add for vacations (2 weeks a year = 80 hours per employee to be covered), so that's about 33 people to cover vacation time alone. Then there's sick leave and FMLA and other leaves that are granted per federal law for office workers that are only provided to airline pilots via the contract, as the federal law has us carved out.
Don't forget holidays too.
That's just Delta.
Of course, if you're not going to analyze every minute of every CVR, then you're just targeting certain people, or flights. And you'll have a small sample rate, then you're defeating the purpose of the bill. It will just turn into another ineffective rule used purely for punitive purposes.
