Marilyn Ames
When was probation changed from 6 months to 1 year. When did SIA agree to this change? How did the FAPM get changed without our approval or even any discussion? If this is a company n policy where is it in the company manuals? Do all departments adhere to the 1 year probation? If it is a company policy it should be company wide if this is an inflight policy it should be in the FAPM.
Brent Coates (SIA Rep)
Marilyn,
Thanks for the question.
This is being researched. We will get you back to you with an answer.
All the best,
Brent
Kristina Siemens
Good morning Marilyn,
Thank you for your question and patience as we did additional research. When I was hired in 2015, the probationary period was a year beginning with your hire date. I know the start of the probationary period has recently changed to after successful completion of your IOE and still remains a year. I was able to find copies of the FAPM/Policy Manual from ’92, ’04, ’08 and ’12 (please see images below) that also confirm the probationary period has been a year as well. Do you happen to have documentation that says it was less than a year at a previous point in time?
1992:
2004:
2008:
2012:
Additionally, this is noted in the Company Manual in SP60 (please see image below).
Please let me know if you have any additional questions/comments/concerns. Thank you again for your question and for taking the time to visit the SIA Forums. I hope you are doing well!
Most kindly,
Kristina
Mette Aland
Kristina- on the SIA fb page there are several FAs stating their probationary period was only 6 months. The author of this post Marilyn, is one of those. It should be easy to verify by looking at their profile is SWOL as it is listed there. I too, thought probation had always been 1 year, but unless these FAs are misinterpreting the information in their profile or not remembering correctly- there were indeed a period of time when probation was only 6 months.
The question many have is WHY did SIA agree to change it back to 1 year after it had been reduced to 6 months and what did we as a group get in exchange for this change?
Erika Robertson
Hello Mette,
Kristina is out of the office so I’m responding instead. Please let me know if you would like a response from her as well once she returns.
SIA has never agreed to change the Probation from 6 months to 1 year. The Probation period for crewmembers has been 1 year since 1992 (please see the post above). The exact opposite it was has happened multiple times over the years… SIA consistently sends proposals to the Company to reduce the probationary period. The Company is not interested in reducing the Probationary Period as they feel 12 months is the time they require to accurately evaluate the employee’s capabilities, attitude, and work habits.
SWOL profiles are provided as a reference and due to a transitional inputting error may show 6 months for some crewmembers, myself included, but that “Probation End Date” has not impacted anyone’s probationary period. The fact that mine says my probation ended in 2007 has no impact on me today. We are addressing it with the Company to have the Profile pages of those impacted corrected, but again it will have no effect on anyone’s employment since everyone who shows 6 months is already well past their probationary period.
Thank you again for your engagement.
Mette Aland
Thank you Erika, for clearing this up. There is quite a stir because FAs are insisting the probation period used to be 6 months as stated in their profile, and then assuming SIA at some point agreed to increase it to 12 months. This is understandable, considering it says 6 months very clearly in their profiles.
Maybe an email or any means of communication sent out in regards to this would help clear up the issue.
Erika Robertson
Thank you Mette. I’ll be sure to present it to the Board.
.
