Can I just add in my tuppence worth to this little conversation:
I'm sick to death of what must be valid controllers chirping up on these threads and basically telling trainees that they should stop complaining or even enquiring about the wage they get and just be grateful that they get a wage at all.
Usually this nonsense comes from valid controllers who, judging by their number of posts, have been valid for some time and so a) Are now making a pretty penny and b) Went thru the training at a time when salaries were far in excess of what they are now.
Don't mistake me, I'm not bitter, I too went thru the college when salaries were distinctly healthier than they are now and am now reaping the benefits of valid life. But I am tired of reading the comments of people on very respectable wages lecturing those perhaps less fortunate than us about how they should be 'grateful they even have the job'. Sorry, but when was the last time you tried to get by in today's world on 10 grand a year?
As much as some people try to portray ATCO's as the chosen few, the fact is it is still a job/career and as such, those people selected to train as such deserve to be paid a wage. If, as seems to be the case at the moment, that wage isn't up to much, then spare them your patronising comments on how 'people did it for nothing in my day', because the fact is that life is financially harder for trainees now than it has ever been, so allow them the space to work out how they are gonna make it work.
After all, these are the people that are gonna make all your future OJTI payments/leave/pensions possible.
Rant over.
I'll get back in my box!
I9