The types of jobs that we do are completely different so it wouldn't be possible for them to work the same hours as us and vice versa. Their days off are week-ends, our days off are to recuperate from a long haul flight anywhere from 6 to 14 hours long, often without any rest onboard, and to recover from the jet lag before our next trip so that's why we get more days off than someone working in an office. However, I get paid for the job that I do irrespective of the number of hours that I work as do they. My reason for making the comparison was not to compare hours, but to show that someone in the office working 9 - 5 (give or take) with an hour for lunch and a couple of breaks during the day, who has been in the company for less than 5 years, can earn more than someone who has been here in a management role for the last 12 years and who has been very supportive of the company through many many very difficult and trying times!
Their salaries may have been capped and I should think so earning 5k per year more than an FSM with over 21 years experience within Virgin Atlantic!!
In all the years I have been working for Virgin, they have always said around pay negotiation time that there's no money. Either because its been such a tough year, or due to expansion or new routes, or the gulf war 1 then 2 then their screw up over the Reynard seats where we lost millions in revenew because nobody listened when we said the seats were terrible! Then there was 9/11 7/7 and so and so on.
Yes we all know the industry is tough, but not a single year of good profit in 22 years and that's why they can never give us a decent pay rise or so they say! They make a lottttttta money from J and premium and on the vast majority of my flights, both are FULL. We have been recruiting almost continually for the last 4 years, the base has undergone a huge refit and I dread to think how much that cost the company, the marble staircase leading up to the clubhouse at LHR cost over one million. LM introduced OBM to Virgin about 5 years ago (which failed miserably at BA by the way and probably contributed to her downfall there) VS spent millions on training everyone on it only to subsequently make major changes because they realised it didn't work and after almost 5 years and a lot of money being spent on it, it looks as if it will soon be scrapped! So they can find money for all of this, but they can't reward their crew who are on the front line with a respectable wage
Last edited by 016FSM; 25th Dec 2007 at 22:59.
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