Merging Companies Instructor Pay Differential

[jonesafe]

Hi
I work for a flight training organisation who has just been merged with another on the same airfield.
I get paid about £3000 a year plus £12 per hour flight pay on average which amounts to a max of about £10,000 a year.
The other companys instructors get £15000 basic and flight pay on top.
We were told today that the pay would be staying the same

My question is .... is this legal in the same company for people doing the same job with the same qualifications being paid half / double of each other?

Thanks

[Whopity]

The CAA got away with it when the FEs became part of Flight Ops!

[RTN11]

Yep perfectly legal. If you are contracted on a certain salary, that is agreed by both parties. I've worked at several offices where the contract specifically said not to talk to other employees about pay. I later found this was because we were all on a very different rate.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Many organisations everybody is on a different rate of pay - reasons for which vary, but it's extremely common.

A bu66er if you're at the low end, but just how it is.

G

[BillieBob]

A couple of perhaps pertinent questions:

Are the two merged organisations retaining their individual identies?

Does one of the organisations hold CAA approvals (e.g. FIC) and the other not?

[Genghis the Engineer]

Makes no difference BillieBob - you're on the salary you agreed to when hired. True of all of us at the end of the day. You never really know, in most organisations, whether you're the best or worst paid of the team. Mergers,etc. really don't change that - possibly unionisation might, but that's unlikely to happen in a couple of small flying schools.

G

[BabyBear]

I think the guys on £15k plus flying time are the ones likely to have their 'salaries' reviewed.

BB

[smarthawke]

Strangely enough, a similar thing has happened this week at Wycombe Air Park. Although it wasn't actually a merger....

It's fairly common knowledge that Wycombe Air Centre were seriously harmed when Cabair folded a couple of months ago. WAC has been bought by the Arora Family Trust, the parent company of Airways Aero Associations Ltd, the Wycombe Air Park operator. Airways Flying Club is part of AAA Ltd.

At any time like this the rumours fly (please excuse the pun) but everything is very strictly controlled by UK law including salaries and contracts. And one certainly shouldn't listen to rumours about actual salaries...


The press release is as follows:

Changes in the air at Wycombe Air Park

More good news in these austere times. The previously family-owned FTO called Wycombe Air Centre (WAC), which has latterly been part of the Cabair group, has been rescued by Surinder Arora, whose Family Trust is owner of the airfield operator, Airways Aero Associations (AAA).

The combination of Wycombe Air Centre’s commercial flight training programmes with AAA’s 63 years old Airways Flying Club private flying and training activities will create a formidable force to be reckoned with. The engineering expertise of the two companies will remain in place, delivering services for Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft, de Havilland and Tecnam.

The acquisition of Wycombe Air Centre with its access to the experience and aircraft fleet of AAA, will hopefully allow an increase in commercial pilot training at the airfield. The Airways Flying Club’s well known rallies, outings and social activities will now also have a larger clientele.

A new company name will soon appear on people’s lips, too. Booker Aircraft Operations Limited will be the umbrella under which the various flying disciplines, the aircraft operations and the engineering will be run. Fortunately, for both Club members and commercial customers, links with such long histories will not disappear as the names of Wycombe Air Centre and Airways Flying Club will not change.

AAA reports that it is business as usual with all other Wycombe Air Park activities with both Air Traffic Control and Rescue & Fire-fighting facilities in particular remaining in place.