Well, yesterday's meeting at ScOACC was an interesting affair to say the least. The Prospect bigwigs put on a good display. Basically, they have negotiated a good deal for all of us. Aside from the annual pay award, everyone has got something from the WPP negotiations for little or no actual changes to working practices. Nice one chaps...
However, when thrown open to the floor, it seemed that not all the members were convinced. It came down, not surprisingly, to the differentials. Firstly, the formula by which each unit was rated was challenged. Alas, the person who was an expert in this formula was not present (he will be there today) and the half a dozen reps that were there couldn't really explain how it worked. But we really ought to trust it, even though it seemed to show that LACC was three times more deserving than our unit. Hmmm...
The other point that kept popping up was how the WPP money was distributed (about £6.2 million, apparently). It was pointed out that as a national agreement, it really ought to be distributed equally amongst the members.
The reps countered this by saying that in effect, that would mean 4.5%, pretty much the same as what we Band 4s are getting anyway.
Yes we said, but at least it would be fairer on ALL ATCOs.
But LACC/TC are more deserving they said, look at the banding formula.
We have, we replied, but the 'expert' isn't here to make any sense of it. And anyway, LACC/TC are two spine points ahead of us already.
Ah, they said, but LACC are the only unit to suffer from the WPP arrangements.
Are we not losing proportionally the same number of people from our OR we asked?
Errrmmmm, yes, but LACC will have 0530 starts, you only have them in principal came the response.
So there you have it. In a nutshell, LACC are getting an extra spine point for the inconvinience of an 0530 start every once in a while (incidentally, that shift finishes at 1100). It is almost worth asking our local reps to negotiate some for us.