An office newbie (joined feb 07) just took home £1725.00. Thats more than an FSM with the new pay deal. The newbies skill? Office admin!
I find that hard to believe for just an admin job. I'm in a front line operational position and that is about what we get per month after tax with no overtime, so I doubt an "office admin" bod would get that much, they must do something a little more important to earn that much - not disputing what you are saying, I just find it hard to believe.
I have noticed though on the recuritment pages of the intranet that the jobs that are not airline related, such as the IT/Media/Accounting etc jobs pay substantially more as they have to pay wages in accordance with those industries to attract the good staff, however when you compare those to the Airline based jobs, the pay levels soon drop across the board. Example I saw a year or so ago - Onboard Media Specialist :- Role - to produce the little Virginified titles that are before/after/between the films on the IFE - salary £45k.
Ops Duty Manager :- Role - day to day management of the whole of VS's flying program, making decisions on a/c swaps, delay resolution etc etc - salary £30k.
Now who's job would you say has the most responsiblility and is more important ?. The low wages are a problem across the whole of the airline industry not just with c/crew. The only people that get paid a decent amount is the pilots and the very senior management.
VS69,
I've been thinking for years that the problem with the service on VS is the age of the crew. Many are too young, have very little experience dealing with the public and forget that flying for an awful lot of the population can be a very stessful experience, and hence I think thats why some of the crew end up in stand off situations with passengers over silly little things such as being asked for a glass of water. Now that VS has legally been forced to drop the upper age limit, I have noticed a few more mature junior crew members (if that makes sense) joining the ranks, and I think that in time we will end up with a healthy balance between young inexperienced crew and more mature crew members. Look at the US airlines - some of their crew are in their 60's, but they provide great service and are less likely to suffer from abuse from disgruntled pax than a young 19/20 something. Alot of good service is down to just plain good manners and knowing how to speak to people as you would like to be spoken to - a problem which from various industries seems to be a problem with the "yoof of 2day".
As you can probably tell, I am not c/crew either but I work fairly closely with you, but just remember when you are crew down you get a nice little payment for it. Spare a though for the other departments on the ground who when they are staff down (can be as many as 20+ at check-in sometimes) they get no more for it, and have twice as much work to do to try and get you guys away ontime as well as putting up with the sh!t from pax.
With regards to your payrise, all we got was 2% thats it - no discussions nothing, 2% like it or lump it.
We have no union to fight for us, as ground staff we are all in the same boat, engineers/office staff/airport staff etc and the problem we get is that someone who does just do office work, who could do the same job in any old office comes to work for an airline that gives them 7 free flights a year as well as everything else so they think it is great and when we have tried to vote in the union, they all reject it so us front line airport staff have to suffer as a result.
Just remember that next time you think things are bad - they are not much better on the ground either. The only bonus we get (if you can call it that) is that we get to spend most nights in our own beds at home unless we are working nightshift !!.
