developmental bidding

Max Power Senior Member

our facrep says developmentals have to bid for their days off. Says the arbitration on that matter just got completed. I've seen the section of the red book, says something to the affect of every person will bid for their days off.

So far our facility has no idea how to handle it. Seems like it could be kind of a big deal at every facility but I havent seen much of anything about it online. Anyone else heard anything about it?

jcpilot Senior Member

Our Facrep has been big in getting this to take effect. The developmentals at my facility, though, haven't been very hot on the idea. It seems that most people are either going to bid the same days off as their primary trainers, or bid the same days as the supes they like.

I'm number last on the senority list anyways, so I don't really care. But the overwhelming feeling here is that no one really had a problem with the way it was before.

But like your facility, no really knows how this is going to happen. Last we were told we won't be bidding until late January at the earliest.

MikeATC Retired FAA, NATCA Member Nashville TN

Personally I don't think developmentals should be allowed to bid ther days off:
My reason is that your job as a developmental is to train and eventually certify, you are assigned to two OJTI's who job is to train you in a consistant manner, meaning you get at least up to 3 hours per day, and that your OJTI's are on the same page about how to train you, how to teach you procedures, etc.

If you as a developmental gets to pick your days off, odds are you will end up picking days that are not in line with your assigned OJTI's (who you may be very comfortable with), so what happens you get a new set of OJTI's (who you may not end up being comfortable with) who may work well with you or may be OJTI's from hell.

Once you certify, then you should be placed on the schedule in a spot that best balances the schedule, then the following year you will get to bid days off.

The exception: If everyone is confident that you will certify priot to the start of the new schedule then "yes", you should get to bid your days off for the next schedule.

I've seen developmentals training go from good to bad when they got to pick their days off and ended up with new OJTI's, sometimes it doesn't happen, but why risk it if you are comfortable with your current training team, and your training is progressing the way it should.

towerflower Junior Member Palm Coast, FL

I don't know what the facility is doing now but we did let the developmental bid days off--somewhat. A blank schedule would come out with two sets of openings. One set was for CPCs and the lower half was for developmentals. That way the facility was able to control how many trainees were on any set of days off. The trainees where given the opportunity to bid on the trainee openings. Sometimes if a person was very close to checking out when the process started, they were given the opportunity to bid as a CPC and not as a trainee, but the majority in control of their training had to feel that they would be checked out totally before the start of the schedule.

Reference another poster who said that they might move away from their OJTI, fact is the primary and secondary OJTI are responsible for their training---with others only filling in when the first two are not available. If a new schedule moves a trainee away from their primary OJTI then they are required to assign a new training team with a new primary OJTI. Failure for a facility to do this will only open the door for a successful overturn of a training failure because the training order was not followed. The primary assigned OJTI will be responsible for 50% or more of the training and anything less than that should require a new training team.

d10owl Newcomer Dallas, TX

We are bidding RDO's as developmentals at D10. Just started last week. Most people stayed where they were for reasons mentioned my Mike.

atcguruaf Rico Suave AZ

yup!

Max Power Senior Member

no decision yet, but so far all the trainees seem to be saying they will pick purely based on days off. Little concern over who their trainer will be so far.

nycdude26 Junior Member

Forget the days off, I want good trainers...

Roddy_Piper Resident Knucklehead Vegas baby

we've always bid days off as developmentals...even on the white book.

my opinion is they should be able to bid. seniority is a big deal and days off is a big deal too.

what if u hate your trainers but would rather not make a stink about it, and just bid days away from them to get new trainers. that's an excellent way to go about it...if the timing is right.

the way i've seen my facility do it is management will designate all the training slots available. then the trainees will bid, based on seniority, for the RDO's. same as the CPC's do. u either get what u want or u don't.

SnowAviation Senior Member Escondido, CA

I think it's a bad idea, NATCA and the FAA made a mistake when they
included that language. Training is more important than getting the days
off you want for a year or two.

But; it is, what it is, so we will see what happens to those nutty
developmentals who bid Fri/Sat and rot with no traffic for a few
years.