Source: ALPA National Policy manual:
SENIORITY GENERAL
SOURCE Board 1956; AMENDED ? Executive Board December 1971; Administrative January 1998 (Canada Reference Added); Executive Board September 1998
Seniority of a pilot shall be based upon the length of service as a pilot with the Company.
Seniority shall begin to accrue from the date upon which a pilot employed by the Company as a pilot begins initial operational training required to perform such duties in airline operations and shall continue to accrue during such period of employment except as otherwise provided in his agreement. The date upon which a pilot first appears upon the Company's payroll as a pilot and begins initial operational training required to perform such duties in airline operations shall establish such pilot's position on the System Seniority List. When two or more pilots are placed on the seniority list on the same date, they shall be placed on such list according to their age; i.e., the oldest pilot shall receive the lowest number, except where prohibited by law.
If through an illegal act of the employer, a pilot is prevented from attaining employment status in a piloting position and commencing initial operational training, said pilot shall, for the purposes of paragraph 3b. above, be considered as having attained such employment status and having commenced such initial operational training at that point in time when said pilot would have attained such employment status and commenced such initial operational training but for the illegal act of the employer. Additionally, if a pilot in fact is recognized by the employer as having attained employee status but said pilot is delayed in the commencement of his/her operational training as a result of honoring an ALPA-sanctioned picket line against said pilot’s employer, the pilot’s seniority date for purposes of paragraph 3b. above, shall be the date of his/her assignment to initial operational training when such assignment is not complied with as a result of honoring such ALPA-sanctioned picket line.
Seniority shall govern all pilots in case of promotion and demotion, their retention in case of reduction in force, their assignment or reassignment due to expansion or reduction in schedules, their reemployment after release due to reduction in schedules, their reemployment after release due to reduction in force, and their choice of vacancies, provided that the pilot's qualifications are sufficient for the operation to which he is to be assigned. In the event that a pilot is considered by the Company not to be sufficiently qualified, the Company shall immediately furnish such pilot written reasons therefore.