The thing which bugs me is that the "There is no more money" argument has been dragged out on every occasion since PPP.
We were told there was no more money at the last pay round, but the ATCOs stuck out and some was found, (only for PCS, who had accepted the argument, suddenly to have a change of plan and demand the same as ATCOs, even though their members had voted to accept the original deal...), and then we were told that LACC had to change to the new 0630 starts and so on 'for the Summer only'. This was mainly to avoid a £5m fine if delays were not got below 1.5 mins per flight. We were promised that this would 'put us in a strong position for the 2004 Pay Round'.
We have recently seen it praised around the company and national press that delays are now about 0.7 mins per flight. So not only have we saved them a £5m fine but we have HALVED the TARGET delay.
In my book, we have bent over backwards to accommodate the difficulties of the company following PPP, and it is time for some recognition of that. A pay award which only just matches inflation does not represent that.
The other point is that the AAVA scheme in use at LACC has saved the company's bacon in the delay figure and has been cheaper than employing enough ATCOs to staff the 22 Sectors or whatever they committed to open. The individuals concerned have done nicely out if it, and it is their business if they want to give up their spare time to turn up at work. I wouldn't mind betting that the ORO and others now RELY upon AAVAs to get them out of rostering holes, and to withdraw the agreement (and enforce it) will cause no end of trouble, especially with the CLN resectorisation going on.
I'm not going to enter the ATCO/ATSA debate other than to say that many ATSAs I talk to bemoan the devaluation of their job (rightly so), but are happy to pick up £30k+ for spending 2 hours at a time reading a novel and putting out paper strips. I'm not judging their motives, but the parallels with other industries for that kind of job will leave them very exposed! Whether they then 'deserve' a pay increase in line with ATCOs who are working harder is one which will run and run..
