ARTICLE B4 ‑ BIDDING AND AWARDING
All appropriate modifications to the Collective Agreement for PBS will be finalized after the provisions of Item 7(b) of the May 2003 MOU are either agreed to or arbitrated.
B4.01 – BID PROCEDURE: Blocks and bid sheets shall be distributed to each employee. The Bid Package will include the following information:
- Vacation and General holiday awards
- Approved leaves of absence
- Union leave
- Deadheading arrangements
- Station designators
- Names of employees requiring training during the month and the specified date(s) and time(s) on which training classes are scheduled
- List of Hotels and phone numbers
- Expenses for each pairing
NOTE: Except as provided for in Article B4.01.01, cross bidding between classifications is not permitted.
B4.01.02 Proxy: An employee who is absent during the bid period may authorize another person to submit his/her bid on his/her behalf.
B4.01.03 Vacation Block Chase: An employee who loses part of a pairing as a result of his/her scheduled vacation shall be permitted to operate that part of his/her pairing provided s/he
indicates his/her intention on his/her bid sheet and is legal to operate his/her flight(s). Legality will be calculated from the beginning or end of his/her vacation or the arrival of his/her deadhead flight as applicable.
NOTE: An employee chasing his/her blocked flights will not be entitled to deadhead credits.
B4.01.04 Vacation Slide: An employee scheduled on vacation shall be permitted to slide his/her vacation period either backward or forward to operate the complete round trip in his/her block provided his/her indicated his/her intention on his/her bid sheet and the effect of the slide is to protect his/her maximum earnings. This may include backward vacation slides in situations where vacations commence in the current month and overlap into a new block month. Block to block slides cannot conflict with flights/pairings in the current block month. Reserve to block slides under this article will not interfere with working days and will not attract credits towards flight time limitations.
B4.01.05 Modem Access: Subject to technical capability and cost effectiveness, an employee may bid and receive award advice by modem. It is understood that the employee must bear any associated external connect time costs and/or monthly service charges.
B4.02 AWARD PROCEDURE
B4.02.01 Classification Sequence: Regular, supplemental and reserve blocks shall be awarded on the basis of valid bids received in accordance with seniority in the following order:
- Purser
- Flight Attendant
NOTE: Invalid Bids: An employee who submits an invalid bid or no bid at all shall be assigned to cover an unbid regular or unbid supplemental block in accordance with seniority subject to classification and language requirement in order of the highest estimated earnings potential. If there are no unbid regular and unbid supplemental blocks, s/he shall be assigned to a reserve block in his/her classification.
B4.02.02 Language Requirements:
B4.02.02.01 The Company may designate up to forty (40%) percent of the blocked positions rounded to the nearest number, on any flight, to languages other than English or French. (See Appendix 4).
B4.02.02.03 Where the requirement is not met in this manner, the remaining positions will be awarded to the next senior language qualified employees who bid for that block(s).
B4.02.02.04 Where no qualified employee bids for the position, the junior qualified employee(s) will be assigned to the extent required.
B4.02.03 Award Errors: Errors in the awarding of regular or supplemental blocks will be rectified if possible providing all employees involved can be advised prior to the first blocked flight of the blocks affected.
B4.02.04 Supplemental Blocks:
B4.02.04.01 Bids: Supplemental blocks will be awarded on the basis of valid bids received.
B4.02.04.02 Eligibility: An employee scheduled on vacation is not eligible to bid on supplemental blocks in that month, except an employee who is on vacation may bid a supplemental block where his/her vacation continues into the supplemental block for no more than three (3) days and provided s/he will be able to operate the entire supplemental block. If s/he is unable to operate an entire supplemental block under this clause, s/he will be assigned a reserve block.
B4.02.04.03 Reserve: An employee who bid for a supplemental block but was awarded or assigned to a reserve block, shall be awarded a non forecast supplemental block without prior contact provided s/he meets the required qualifications.
B4.02.04.04 Assignment: A supplemental block not bid by any employee shall be assigned in reverse order of seniority subject to classification and language requirements.
B4.02.04.05 Award Sequence: Supplemental blocks shall be awarded in accordance with seniority subject to classification and language requirements in accordance with the following procedures:
B4.02.04.05.01 Supplemental blocks will be published for bid purposes for a period of forty‑eight (48) hours.
B4.02.04.05.02 Supplemental blocks will be awarded to those employees awarded a supplemental block in the initial award process outlined in Article B4.01 and B4.02 ‑ Bid and Award Procedure.
B4.02.04.05.03 Employees not awarded a supplemental block through the above bid procedure or who have not submitted a bid will be awarded any unbid supplemental block in accordance with seniority subject to classification and language requirements, in order of the highest blocked flight time.
B4.02.04.05.04 Language Requirement: Where a supplemental block contains a language requirement, it shall be awarded to the senior language qualified employee who bid. If no qualified employee bids, the block shall be assigned to the junior qualified employee. This procedure applies to all classifications.
B4.02.04.06 Vacation: Where, due to vacation, an employee is unable to operate all flights during the block month, his/her vacated block will be awarded to the next most senior qualified employee even though that employee may also be on vacation. This award procedure will apply once only to each position on that block.
B4.03 BLOCK EXCHANGE: A block, once awarded, may not be exchanged.
B4.04 JOINT AWARD
B4.04.01 Flight Attendant Classification: Where two (2) employees in the Flight Attendant classification bid together, the seniority of the junior shall govern the award.
Where a joint award cannot be made, individual awards will be made in reverse order of seniority.
B4.04.02 Different Classification: Where two (2) employees in different classifications bid together, the seniority of the lower classification only may be relinquished.
Where a joint award cannot be made, individual awards will be made in accordance with seniority.
B4.05 REPORT TO BASE DURING BLOCK MONTH: Cabin Personnel scheduled to report to a Base shall be handled as follows:
B4.05.01 General: Cabin Personnel scheduled to report to a Base on return from personal leave of absence, a supervisory position or special assignment or on a transfer from another Base, shall be permitted to bid prior to assignment to a Base and shall be awarded a block in the normal manner provided they will be available to operate their entire block.
If they will be unable to operate the entire block, they will not be permitted to bid and will be assigned to a reserve block on their assignment to Base until the next bid period.
B4.05.02 Sick Leave, Maternity Leave and Child Care Leave: Cabin Personnel scheduled to return to duty before the fifteenth (15th) day of the block month following sick leave, maternity leave or child care leave shall be permitted to bid and will be awarded a block. Medical evidence to this effect must be provided with the bid to be awarded a block.
B4.06 LONG TERM BLOCK VACANCIES: Any regular or supplemental block which becomes available after block awards, but no later than the tenth (10th) day of the new block month will, if possible, be awarded as follows:
B4.06.01 To the senior qualified employee on reserve who had bid supplemental blocks, providing the employee would be legal in all respects to operate the remainder of the block.
B4.06.02 If there is no employee on reserve who had bid supplemental blocks, award to the senior on reserve who was assigned reserve account insufficient bids, providing s/he would be legal in all respects to operate the remainder of the block.
If the employee is not legal to operate the remainder of the block, the block will be cancelled and all flights placed on the open flying list.
B4.06.03 Employee Legality Definition: An employee is legal providing the remaining flights in the block plus accrued flying operated while on reserve total between sixty‑five (65) and seventy‑five (75) hours.