Union, pilot group, whatever. The people who make the rules like it just fine the way it is.

We should get paid for duty like every other hourly worker. Professionals control their own schedule, they get the work done on their own terms, and at their own pace. None of that applies to us.

Get paid for duty, with a good daily rig and then all trips would be productive.

 

That segment of the industry is called "business aviation".

 

I think you need to re-read my original post on this thread. The intent was to make sure that we are paid hourly, like the white-collar professions that the old salts wanted to imitate, even though we are really not white collar; we're tradesmen.

Secondarily, with regards to getting paid for duty, with a daily rig, that is up to you (and your fellow pilots in your company) and your MEC to target in contract negotiations. Just because the company will initially throw its hands up in the air and say, "Well, we can't afford that!" (and they will) does not mean that you drop the topic.

There are advantages and disadvantages to any system. What the trip-and-duty rigs do is prevent the junior guys from getting creamed after the best trips are gone, while forcing the company to minimize "bad" trips.

With a salary, the company might have an incentive to abuse you even more, unless the conditions that qualify for over-time or penalty pay are explicitly spelled out...and I can guarantee you that at least one scenario would present itself that you didn't think of, and you'd lose money on that scenario repeatedly, whatever it is.

Even at a regional, I benefited from rigs enough to know that I believe it is the best mechanism we have for maximizing our productivity and our salary.