Well that goes for us too: you earn in pounds what we do in euro's, you have a pension based on your last earned salary, where ours is based on average, you have less early shifts than we do.
Well that's as maybe, but have you considered whether this is better or worse than the pension that KLM employees currently enjoy?
The highest earning KLC uk Captain is earning c. £75,000. They can go no higher- that is the top incremental pay scale. Assuming that pilot has been in the pension scheme for about 30 years upon retirement then he could potentially get £50,000 pa (€67,500) from his pension.
The KLM scheme is different and although I don't know the details of the benefits, it assumes a career-wide average. When you consider that the average KLM starter is only in his or her early twenties and then they can enjoy approximately 35 years of KLM employement earning what is arguably a "generous" salary- certainly it is much better than many other airlines, and will end their career as a Jumbo Captain earning (so I understand, but I am prepared to be corrected) close to €250,000 pa. Add in the fact that I fly with KLM first officers who earn more than I do as a KLC Uk Captain and they are still in their twenties, you can see that over a career, the average KLM employee will have a significantly higher AVERAGE salary than we have as a FINAL salary.
Also bear in mind that the company want to remove many of the benefits that we currently enjoy by freezing our pension at the level it is this year and all future payrises and increments are to be added into a money purchase pension scheme, with all the risks associated with this. For my own situation, I have calculated that I will be £7,000 pa WORSE OFF in retirement assuming that the investment rates are fairly average. In a poor market, this could be much worse. Some colleagues have calculated that this could be as much as £15,000 per annum for their own circumstances. Assuming that pilot lives until he is 90 (unlikely I know) Ms van Galen's costcutting exercise would have cost that pilot PERSONALLY £450,000 in lost benefits! Is THIS fair?
So you can see that our remuneration is vastly inferior to our KLM colleagues. Not only do we earn significantly less (whilst doing the same job) we will be much poorer in retirement as well.
This grievance goes far deeper than just a mainline entry. Yes, we were given the right to join three years ago but the terms and conditions then were totally unacceptable if you were older than about 30 and married, or had any seniority in KLM uk. As a senior F/O at the time, it would have been untenable to accept the deal. Many of our colleagues don't want to join mainline and will never do so. Many can't for many reasons. Most want some sort of security and an end to the constant apartheid (a Dutch word note) that we experience on a day to day basis. I can't even change my BST password into something more memorable because I have no access to myklm.org- even though I fly a KLM aircraft with KLM passengers, flying with KLM employees I am not worthy of access to this website. My ID pass has KLM Cityhopper UK written in the smallest possible font so everyone can spot us a mile off (assuming they have good eyesight). I don't get given a pack of business cards as my fellow KLC NL colleagues do.
The list is endless and THIS is why we want an end to the inequality and discrimination. We just want the RIGHT to join KLM and not on some silly terms and conditions that they know NO-ONE will accept. We want to be able to be part of the family and there is no reason why we shouldn't be!
To all my Dutch colleagues who are supporting our stand here, I thank you and appreciate your words of support. I am sorry that you haven't been given much information about this rather complex issue but I am assured that there will shortly be something available to you which hopefully may explain our situation. Your continued support is most gratifying.