Yeah ok Yahoo...you just carry on whining about banding...its so boring mate...as Scuzi said, change the record. The rest of us will carry on worrying about the pension.
I wondered how long it would take before this turned into a Band 5 slagfest..
To suggest this issue is not about banding is ostrich mentality to the extreme. It was even quoted by the independent auditors of the pensions scheme as being a major contributory factor to the reduction in the plans surplus.
To give an example, an ordinary band 5 ATCO retiring today will have paid approximately £10,000 more into the scheme than a colleague retiring from a band 2 unit. They will receive a one off payment £120,000 more than their colleague and expect a pension of nearly £20,000 more per annum!
When I worked at West Drayton, the watch union rep used to tell us that they based their negotiations on the fact that " The average gash, shag ATCO I represent would not only sell his grandmother for an extra spine point but would happily throw in the wife and kids as well" That person is now a very senior figure within the union and I have seen nothing within the last few years to suggest that their negotiating position has changed.
The attitude of the larger units towards their colleagues in union negotiations is finally coming home to roost. It is just a shame that everyone will have to pay the price for their insouciance.
That said I do believe that the current negotiations are part of a wider divide and conquer plan by management to force a NERL/NSL split with a view to a future NSL sell off ( anyone for a ring fenced NSL pension?? )