Lostthepicture,
Twenty Thousand pounds is a substantial difference in pay between ATCOs and yes it does make a difference.
Glorified computer game, not where i am sitting its not.
The actual pay rise is good, we should be very lucky when many out there are getting considerably less , those complaining about the basic pay rise really must look at themselves, the issue really is regrading.
If you think its OK to earn substantially more than your colleagues and cannot see why we are up in arms about it one wonders if you actually know what we do outside of LACC LTCC and EGLL.
I am also fed up of the " well if you don't like it come and work here" crowd, as many have already said they have tried but for various reasons, usually because we are short of staff and can not be released we are unable to " work there".
What happens if we at the airfields didn't work there, where would your traffic be , certainly not up in the air.
Those of us who are dual valid also feel aggrieved that there are so many Tower only units in the top grading of airfields. At dual valid units people tend to train in the tower first because radar is the more complex of the two ratings, but again thats not being recognised.
The annual pay rise should have been dealt with on a totally separate issue from the regrading, when it was discussed with us at our unit a few months ago we were told it would be a considerable time before the regrading would take place as there were so many variables and they were unable to find a fair solution. It would seem the regrading has thus been pushed through, who pushed it was in NATS or PROSPECT ?
I will tell you why I at the moment will not move, and yes I very seriously looked at it last year. I enjoy my work, I don't think oh no I have to go to work today, as a number of my colleagues at other units do. I get job satisfaction from what i do . But most importantly for me after years of moving with work and family I have finally found somewhere I can call home. I am very aggrieved at the regrading but if the company or anybody else thinks 20K a year will make me move or any other ATCO move they are sorely incorrect, some of us know that there is much more to life than work, and when we finally find ourselves a life we will stay there.