Sorry guys but you have a problem with what most companies would regard as the normal employer/employee relationship. Normally a person is employed & for the work done they receive a payment, i.e., salary. If either side is not happy about the existing relationship then they can give notice to terminate the contract.
Your particular problem, in any pay negotiations of any sort, is that the above arrangement does not apply to Jet2. You have both captains (yes captains as well as first offiers) and first officers who have paid for their ratings and are subsequently in debt, via the company, to the tune of many thousands of pounds. Therefore the financial penalty for that person to quit is greater than receiving the pathetic and insulting offer that you have been asked to accept.
Now, I have recently flown with a number of blokes who have various degrees of experience on jet types other than the 737 or 757, e.g., Fokker 100, BAe 146, ex military, etc. etc. who have been offered but turned down employmewnt with Jet2. The reason: they were all being asked to pay for their own ratings (please remember that I am talking captains as well as first offiers and all experienced). When they, in my opinion quite rightly, told N.H. and R.L. to stuff their rotten 'job' offer, they were told that Jet2 charge for ratings because otherwise they wouldn't be able to compete with the other locos!
If this is true then you have two major problems in achieving a decent settlement. 1) The company simply does not have the money to pay you any extra whoever & however you choose to negotiate. 2) As you have altered the above mentioned employer/employee relationship you are part of the funding for Jet2. They have stated it, "we cannot compete with the other locos unless we charge our employees." As most reasonably experienced pilots now have other options than to pay for ratings with a bottom feeding outfit this source of revenue into the company has dryed up. They will have to claw it back from somewhere. Can you guess?
Good luck for tomorrow to all of the pilots flying for Jet2 who give a damn about standards, I mean it.
