Hi all again. I forgot to read this for a little while.
One main theme that emerged from this thread was that we should do our homework before committing to work over here.
I know I did my homework and I was fully aware of what I was signing up for. So we sold everything up and shipped ourselves half way around the world and our cost (in the $thousands) but when it came to reading and signing the fair-dinkum contract, the details had changed. The basic salary was nearly halved which reduces future payrises by half and other salary based benefits etc etc etc - the rest was made up of so called allowances which there is no beakdown figure for each so called allowance. In otherwords they did it in haste before the last royal decree payrise for government workers and thus limiting the amount given to controllers. And remember, it only went to those actually on the payrole at the time.
Rents were easily double to that quoted and then some and expats have had to be very resourceful and forceful with landlords to get something reasonable at reasonable rates - for now!!!
"The schooling is excellent" - well that's if you can get a spot for your child to attend and that has been an effort in some case. And because of the rents, you have to live on average, 50 minutes away from the schools. That means your children of 5 years and up have to get up at 5.30am to get to school. This is not complaining, just reality!!!
What mystifies me is that not all that long ago, controllers were highly respected members of the community, on wages comparable to highly skilled professionals such as Doctors, Airline Pilots and the like. Our responsibilities are great and the consequences of mistakes are just as great where some controllers have lost their freedom or their life, for their mistakes or should I say working conditions. Why are we allowing our profession to be treated with some contempt towards to the skills we have been developing for years of which they have not contributed towards at all? Our wages do not reflect our skills, responsibilities or profession!
JUST IMAGINE THE RESPONSE WE WOULD GET IF WE ALL JUST SAID, " WE WON'T BE COMING TO WORK TODAY/TOMORROW/NEXT SHIFT CYCLE UNTIL WE SIT DOWN AND DISCUSS OUR SALARY.
Any one care to hazard a guess how much they make in ANS charges per month in the Gulf? Imagine the turmoil we would cause if we just didn't show up for work if they didn't listen us seriously. Imagine if we could get organised enough to be listened too seriously enough? We are our own worse enemy if we just do nothing. We can all talk the talk, but who's going to to walk the walk?