So much for employee loyalty (again). Eh, Bertie?
A few years ago it was a case of the employers telling pilots that they made no profit for the company - the only profit was in engineering and maintenance. At the same time they were also telling the engineers that no profit was made from their efforts - it was only made through pilotage. You know who I mean...
With the market being as it is, how do the police possibly hope to attract pilots for even less money whilst still demanding relatively highly experienced pilots? It's ridiculous to tell pilots they are putting the whole operation at risk by merely expecting a competitive salary.
IIRC, the whole business case for having ASUs in the first place centered around saving money, by saving man hours on ground searches.
Then direct employment was seen as best value, saving even more money..
Perhaps the Chief Constables should apply for charitable status for ASUs.....
(no, I'm not serious).