Important Information Re Jeppesen Crew Rostering
From the R1 roster beginning Monday 27th January 2025, Sunstate Pilot Rosters will be built using a Jeppesen Crew Rostering program (JCR). The current roster build system that JCR will replace is a much more manual process of assigning crew to pairings. The company has made it a requirement that the Sunstate rostering system align with other Qantas Group airlines. The council have delayed the implementation whilst we worked with the company to align JCR to be as close as possible to the current Sunstate roster request system.
The JCR tool aims to automate the roster build by creating far more solutions for a roster that complies with all EA and FRMS rules. For the most part, there will be no changes from a crew perspective other than the order in which roster requests are granted when JCR can't grant all requests successfully. In iFlight, the roster request order of priority from one to nine will now tell JCR that your highest preference is request number one and your lowest preference is request number 9. It's important to note that Jeppesen Crew Rostering still considers all requests as important and will work to build rosters where all pilots requests can be granted. Similar to the current roster build process, JCR will not always be able to grant all requests based on resources available and the volume and combination of requests that flight crew are submitting in iFlight. based on the data from rosters R12 and R13, JCR has been able to consistently grant requests on roster builds of greater than 90%. This is similar to the current roster build system in use. If crew continue to limit their requests for their individual needs, we will continue to have good results.
The most important change in the Jeppesen Crew Rostering system is that it does not have the ability to grant roster requests in order of the time the request was placed. The company and the council have worked hard to find a solution to this limitation, but unfortunately, it was not possible to resolve entirely. The council realises this is a change to the current method, however, we have observed JCR producing the same results in its ability to grant roster requests whilst improving on other areas of rostering (eg. More equally distributed duty hours and overnights, reduction in 6 day runs, increase in paired days off, improved reserve coverage etc).
Although JCR has the ability to continue a high success rate of granting requests the company has agreed to provide a Priority Day Off request system for all Sunstate pilots allowing four requests per year that will be pre-assigned and JCR will not be able to move this day. This will mean that the crew will be able to utilise this system via a comply form for very important days in the year they may need. The following rules will apply to these Priority Days Off (PDO):
- PDO's will be a day off in roster per the EA DDO rules.
- PDO's will not be deducted from annual leave balance.
- Maximum of 4 PDO's per calendar year (does not accrue).
- Maximum of 2 PDO's per 28 day roster period.
- PDO’s are not available on Christmas and New Years Day.
- Should too many crew request the same date. The order of granting will be based on the time and date of comply form submission.
- Any PDO's will be included in the maximum roster request available to the crew. (Example. If a full-time crew member submits a comply form for a PDO, they should only place a maximum of 8 roster requests in iFlight. Any extra days added in iFlight will not be accepted by the Jeppesen Crew Rostering system).
Priority Days off will have a very high success rate, and the company will make every effort to ensure they are granted. It is important for crew to remember that these days should be reserved for days you absolutely need and not simply requested because they haven't been used in a calendar year. The stability of Sunstate rosters and high success rate of current roster request is due to crew using the system as it was intended to provide a fair system where all crew, regardless of seniority, can enjoy some flexibility in their time off work.
The council would like to thank all crew for ensuring their fellow pilots have access to a high success rate in roster requests. The council will, of course, continue to monitor rosters via the council roster checking process and monthly rostering meetings with Work Force Planning.
Sunstate Pilot Council Committee:
Jarrod Blaker, Anthony Berko, Russell Thompson, Richard Copland, Dan Lyons, Louise Pole, Bianca Salim and Rod Millroy
If you have any questions regarding a Sunstate matter please contact a Sunstate Council Committee member or AFAP staff members Chris Aikens on chris@afap.org.au or Simon Lutton on simon@afap.org.au or (03) 9299 5737. The AFAP Member Assistance Program (MAP) can be contacted via Freecall 1300 307 912