In September 2018 Tim Robinson, NZALPA President, said:

“Retaining experienced flight instructors in our world class New Zealand flight training organisations is also essential. NZALPA is committed to work with industry to ensure that the role and career for a flight instructor is both viable and fulfilling in the long term. We also represent many of these flight instructors, who are NZALPA members. Without this commitment the potential for a significant link in the New Zealand pilot supply chain to be eroded will continue to trouble the industry.” 

At about the same time, an NZALPA negotiating team was making initial engagement with L3 CTS Airline Academy, the Hamilton-based, United Kingdom-owned, training organisation. For the next six months successive NZALPA negotiating teams worked towards making NZALPA’s commitment a reality. 

The process involved two complete negotiating teams of L3 pilot representatives, and three NZALPA advocates. That team turnover reflected the high turnover of experienced flight instructors within the industry moving on to jobs in other parts of the industry and to airlines which were going through a growth spurt. 

Led, initially, by advocate Tom Buckley, and subsequently by Joy Walpole-Leva’a and Adam Nicholson, the L3 pilot group provided one four-person team which worked on the project until they succumbed to the lure of the airlines early this year; and then another four-person team which saw the project through to completion. The two teams did the research and provided their knowledge of this part of the industry. 

The fundamental interests of the NZALPA team related to the creation of an environment where pilots felt valued, had a structured employment situation with clear career progression and fair processes, and which made it possible for a flight instructor to see a pathway which enabled him or her to choose this as their long-term career. 

L3 management, Peter Stockwell in Hamilton and Geoff Van Klaveren in the United Kingdom, had the same interests but from a different perspective. They wanted to have a group of happy flight instructors who wanted to be there, felt valued, and enjoyed what they do for a living. For the company this means better retention of instructors and a lower level of staff turnover. For the academy’s students this means being taught by more experienced instructors who stayed long enough to provide a better learning environment through the various training phases. 

Working together using interest based bargaining techniques, and listening carefully to each other, both parties were able to understand the values and the costs of proposals, the costs of doing nothing, and to modify their approach to achieve the best outcomes for everyone.

The outcome is a new, and first, collective agreement covering flight instructors from C Cat through to A Cat with the potential to move to positions with a potential six figure salary range. Features include: 

• A three year term; 
• Salary increases ranging from 8% to 26.38% for C and B Category instructors; 
• Up to an 8% company superannuation contribution; 
• A clear, predictable and transparent training and promotion process where length of service with the company is a determining factor;
• Promotion criteria recognising an individual’s annual assessment results; 
• Leave increasing to five weeks per annum after five years’ service;
• 60 days of sick leave per annum; 
• Three months’ notice of resignation or termination; 
• Union recognition and cooperation provisions; 
• Company provided insurances; and 
• A productivity incentive bonus scheme. 

The flight instructors now have a clear and objective career path, a salary structure that allows an instructor to seriously consider a career as a teacher of aviation skills, and an ongoing interaction, through NZALPA, with the company in a developing relationship and a partnership for the future.

The company gains a happy pilot workforce who can seriously consider remaining in this part of the industry for longer, if not permanently, and who look forward to working with their employer for a better future. It gains greater stability without losing its ability to monitor individual performance and has the flexibility to change as time and events require. 

Adam Nicholson, NZALPA advocate, expressed his appreciation for the constructive way the company responded to the members’ interests in negotiations and its preparedness to take an interest-based, rather than a positional, bargaining approach. 

“It has been a matter of personal satisfaction for me to be part of structuring a relationship which has made such positive steps towards recognising the value of flight instructors to the industry and towards making flight instruction as a career decision more accessible to those of our members who get personal pride and satisfaction through this work,” Adam said.