Advice on parental leave, trade union recognition at airlines, and notice periods By Terry Brandon, BALPA National Officer Q My base manager has told me to take my paternity leave as part of my annual leave entitlement, which seems wrong to me. Before I challenge him, could you advise please? Paternity leave should never be counted as part of your paid holiday or annual leave entitlement; it must be taken as a separate event. If you have outstanding holiday leave and want to use it to extend your paternity leave whether its before or after your paternity leave period your employer may be willing for you to do that, but it is not an automatic right. Whether you take one or two weeks off work for paternity leave, you will continue to accrue paid holiday leave. Q As airlines respond to a potential pilot shortage right now, many of us are looking at new opportunities. There has been a lot of discussion around which employers provide the best pay and benefits, but I am alarmed that there are at least two operators who seem to be anti-trade union and, rumour has it, put off pilots from joining BALPA. Is this correct? BALPA is recognised in more than 20 airlines, representing around 10,000 pilots more than 85% of all commercial pilots flying in the UK. All except Jet2 entered voluntary recognition with BALPA, the most recent to recognise BALPA being Norse Atlantic. There are no trade unions recognised in Wizz UK yet. The vast majority of airlines accept collective bargaining, and those members benefit from the daily efforts of our Company Council reps. You have the legal right to choose to join BALPA, and employers are not permitted to offer you a benefit to leave a trade union or threaten to treat you unfairly if you do not leave a union. Employers that attempt to undermine trade unions often support and promote an alternative forum, giving the false impression that they wish to engage constructively with their workforce, even to the point of giving wins to this body. This is a wellestablished anti-union tactic to circumvent unions and try to make them irrelevant. Only Jet2 and Wizz sponsor such bodies. From our experience, such tactics are usually counter productive in the long run. The concerns with such forums or groups are that they have no negotiating rights or powers, and are not able to prevent the employer from making wholesale changes to pay, benefits or terms and conditions. At present, employers may be looking at enhancing their benefits to attract and retain crew, but, in a downturn, only trade unions have the power to prevent job losses or the removal of benefits or cutting pay. Whatever airline you may go to, it is vital you retain your BALPA membership. Let us know that you have moved airline and inform us immediately if you see or hear of any discouraging remarks or literature about trade unions. Q If you have a question youd like to put to Terry or any of our other BALPA experts, email TheLog@balpa.org I have been offered a job with another airline, but I am not sure what my notice period should be. Where do I find this? Employees and employers are under an obligation to provide each other with some form of notice period upon terminating the employment agreement. This is usually set out in your contract of employment. If you do not honour this, you are likely to be in breach of contract. Please contact your Company Council or National Officer for further advice. If the contract of employment is silent on notice periods, there are minimum legal requirements, which are as follows: l Employers notice periods range from one week to 12 weeks depending on length of service of the employee. l Employees are only required to give one weeks notice irrespective of their length of service. INDUSTRIAL ISSUES Know your rights