I'm impressed, quite a lot of knowledge about NATS here.
- So firstly, there are no compulsory redundancies, there is a small risk there might be next year if there are not enough voluntary redundancies. With the generous package I don't think they will be low on uptakes.
- They are changing the redundancy terms, they cannot come into effect for 12 months due to union negotiations so they'll be ready for any future redundancies.
- Expecting maybe 350 redundancies from a company of around 5000 employees (but this includes all the branches), controllers are not being offered redundancies as far as I am aware - could change?), as mentioned above it takes years to train them and it would be short sighted.
- Regarding shares, yes NATS are a private company, most things operate this way now, efficiencies etc. But the UK Government own 49% so it's basically nationalised, just a more efficient and held to account structure. To properly nationalise it now would be pointless, to what benefit. We sell our services all over the world now, the government usually get profit from us every year. To save cash, clearly needed, no dividends are being paid for the foreseeable future - common sense really.
- Further comment on share dividends, NATS likes to always pay dividends twice a year, they like to keep to the same amount to try to keep the company image as stable as possible (this is my personal opinion I must make clear). My observations of this throughout the years has been that the owners are happy to receive this but usually have other interests. You see NATS is owned by the Gov (I'm sure they don't push hard for dividends as such), 5% for employees and the rest is mostly airlines. So the owners are also our customers, so they are usually more interested in cutting the fees in the first place and especially cutting fuel by improving flight paths and gradual airport descent etc. Ryan air have some opinions on our fees haha
- We do not control our income, the EU controls our income (well Eurocontrol) so we get whatever they give us based on flight data.
- Many contractors were let go many months back, mostly project workers, most staff are not allowed on any of our sites, hence catering companies etc don't need as many staff.
- Immediate finances are improved with the use of furlough. Also the pension is being paid again and fully backdated. Redundancies are going ahead as income is expected to be hit for the next 2 years, just like many companies right now, money out must be balanced with money in.
- We do have an ageing work force so there is going to be a lot of retired staff in the coming few years, it's been a worry for a while.
- Someone said there is a bullying culture, that just sounds ridiculous to me, come work for NATS and you'll see a very desirable company, I've been here for over 10 years and see no bullying etc. The thing is, if one person interpret one activity wrongly and thinks it involves bullying then bam all of a sudden the whole company suffers from bullying. Not true at all.
- Staff (in engineering at least) were asked last year what their retirement expectations were, in answer to a question above. NATS wanted to know who was going soon, in the next 5 years or no current intention. From an engineering point of view many engineers will retire when the equipment they are experts in is replaced, they are at the door of retirement so don't want to invest years learning and working on the new systems - understandable and logical.
These are all my personal opinions and information that is not sensitive and/or publicly available.