Mad,
There is a fundamental difference between protecting the very viability of the pension scheme and the nice to haves. And have no doubt the independent actuaries are clear this is about the viability of the scheme. Like it or not
I have been swayed by the arguments put forward and have changed my opinion of what is necessary to sustain the pension scheme as far as is possible into the future.
There are no absolute guarantees in life but should NATS go down the swannee we will be seeing one of the most cast iron ones go with it.
Am I happy about it?-no!
Am I trying to be realistic?-yes!
All the things you mention would be a straight negotiation at the time and I would suggest that if, say, the 10% needed to buy the 6 days off was no longer fully pensionable we would all tell them where to stick it.
This is about reality and seeing what is now starting to happen in this industry. Movements are starting to see a real drop off. Let's hope this is only short term but with employment up 150k today I don't think it is. Will it come back?-let's hope so. The radio just had an item on about how workers were trying to encourage their management to let them all have a pay cut to avoid redundancies. Let's hope we never have to face that little dilemma.