NATS Banding
I am starting this thread to try and separate Banding from the current NATS Payrise/Pensions one even though, IMHO there are inextricably linked lessons from the past between them.
I will start with a history lesson prompted by a recent post by GT3 on the payrise thread and aimed squarely at those NATS ATCOs who have joined in the last 15 years. I make no apologies if this gets rather long!
Prior to 1987, anyone lucky enough to be selected for a CAA Cadetship (as it was then) started at the College of knowledge as an ATCO Cadet. This “status” lasted for 9 months whilst you did your basic, unit famil, licence & tech and Aerodrome Control courses followed by a FULL PPL course. Subject to successful progress through those you gained the grade of ATCO IV. Even back then there was constant tinkering with the course content BUT at the start you knew whether you were doing an Airport or Area Course. As I was “Airport” I am somewhat hazy as to what happened to the “Area” people on becoming ATCO IV but for Airport people we were then posted to a unit to validate our ADC ratings.
Approx. 10 months later you returned to the college to do Approach (procedural) then Approach (Radar) courses before retunring to your unit to validate those. Some 2.5 years after starting your Cadetship you Graduated and if you were at that point valid in all ratings you became an ATCO II pre-PPR (Performance and Progression Review) – a status that lasted for 5 years.
IRRESPECTIVE of where you worked ALL ATCOs of the same grade/seniority earned the SAME PAY because we were (still are theoretically) a mobile grade. When the 5 years were up, you had the PPR and then moved to the ATCO II Post PPR scale which again was the same at ALL UNITS.
In 1987 the first WPP agreement came into being which recognised the differences between working at Heathrow and Cardiff (purely for example – no disrespect meant to my colleagues there!) – new ATCOs posted to some units (Heathrow/Gatwick/Manchester/LATCC/SCOATC) would be ATCO 2 elsewhere they would be ATCO 3.
The ATCO II’s at ATCO 3 units would become “Retained Rights ATCO II’s” and stay on the higher pay scales, whilst their newer colleagues would be on a lower pay scale – at that time the difference between ATCO 3 top of scale and ATCO 2 was about £5K.
(See the connection with two-tier pensions here?).
It was said that this would not affect ATCO II’s as natural progression would see them (retained rights ATCOs) gradually move on/retire.
Jump forward to 1993 and in an effort to speed up the process, CAA/NATS offered to “buy-out” the retained rights ATCOs for sums that varied depending on length of service from about £3K to a maximum of £20k for those in the roughly 50-55yo bracket. Many took the dosh, others elected for a “posting of your choice to a an ATCO 2 unit”.
(Again, see the possible link to two-tier pensions and the “it’s ok you can keep your current one, it will only affect new joiners”?)
Having opted for the posting, I personally spent the next 8 years trying to get just that – every 6 months I would get a letter saying Posting Delayed until xxx and it caused me personally a huge amount of external (home wise) aggro – growing family, never knowing where we would be in x-months time. Eventually I got so fed up, I took a revised offer to buy-out my retained rights and reverted to ATCO 3.
Fast forward to 200? and we get banding which just compounds the problem for those of us who have already been through the process before. The difference between ATCO 2 Band 5 and ATCO 3 Band 2 is now over £20K pa – and we all used to be one happy family being paid the same rates – perhaps that explains some of the strong feelings often expressed on these forums.
Personally I do believe that there should be Unit Banding/grading call it what you will but the difference has become too big. As to those who say “get a posting” well tried that – got nowhere, everwhere is short of people (at one point in the late 1990’s my unit had only 15 fully valid Airport ATCO’s on a requirement of 25!) – and I am now not a youngster anymore J
Final iniquity in the current system – if I did manage to get a move to a say Heathrow – (Band 2 ATCO 3 to Band 5 ATCO 2) – NATS do NOT consider that a promotion! So initially there is absolutely no financial gain for at least a year.
If you have got this far – well done! ( Happy to accept corrections on dates etc as it’s a long time ago )
Standing back waiting for incoming
DD