From a NATS perspective, I can see a long, long, LONG and painful negotiation process for this one. The long term financial plans for CP2/CP3 will be well at odds with what RPI is currently sitting at.
I sincerely hope that, after Mr Barron rubishing any reference to NATS still supposed to be a 'not-for-profit' company (it was a condition of PPP) and insisting that we are a bone fide profit-making, private company, they are not now going to play the 'part government owned' card to insist the c. 2% public sector pay idea should apply to us.
We managed to pay off a huge chunk of debt and still make a multi-million pound profit... I'm not taking a pay cut in real terms. Simple as that.
What they will say is that any money to pay for the pay deal will have to be raised from improved effiiciency.