As part of the Company’s ongoing commitment to reducing wildfire risk and commitment that catastrophic wildfires shall stop, the Company recently announced that it would implement additional safety measures to address the ever-growing wildfire threat and help keep our customers and communities safe.
In support of the Company’s effective implementation of additional safety measures, the Company and Union have agreed, pursuant to Section 204.4 and 304.4 of the Physical Agreement, that certain classifications (included below) within Title 200 (not including the Transmission Department) and Title 300 (not including the Transmission or Tower Departments) will be eligible to receive a ten percent (10%) premium while flying as a passenger in a helicopter to patrol and inspect electric assets and meet associated qualification or training requirements [e.g. Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) patrols, PSPS exercises, outage response, safety or compliance patrols, and training qualification flights].
The 10% Helicopter Premium is only paid for those hours worked while flying as a passenger in a helicopter to perform the above stated duties, which includes participating in pre-flight briefings and post-flight debriefings.
The 10% Helicopter Premium is not included in the “Basic Weekly Pay” for the purpose of calculating benefits under Part II (the Final Pay Pension) of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company Retirement Plan, Covered Compensation under Part III of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company Retirement Plan, and Covered Compensation under the Retirement Savings Plan for Union-Represented Employees.
An employee must be qualified through completion of appropriate training requirements before they would become eligible to fly in a Helicopter and become eligible to receive the 10% Helicopter Premium.
In addition, the parties agree that the Company may select the appropriate classification(s) and employee(s) that will be assigned to fly as a passenger in a helicopter to patrol and inspect electric assets and meet associated qualification or training requirements.