Which will more likely be phrased as "we think we can avoid redundancies if you don't have a pay rise". So what do you think the union should do when that happens ?
The union is there to protect all, therefore it should aim to keep people in jobs.
However in the spirit of workng together, the union and management should sit down before any such decision is made and see if staffing numbers are realistic to carry out the tasks at a level they are currently being done.
I think they will find a few surplus staff around the bazaars that could be gotten rid of without any ill effect on the company. I include ATCOs in this statement as there are many who are doing an office job which could be fulfilled by a non ATCO at half the salary, thus allwoing the ATCO to return to the OPS environment.
There are other ATCOs around who have played the system for too long... doing made up jobs because they have been unable to validate after moving units at their own request. The company need to get some balls and bin these wasters.
This may sound harsh, but why should I take a lower pay award to keep someone in employment when they are wrongfully employed, under utilised?
Then they can talk about pay freezes etc as a cost saving.
A poor pay award is an easy and extremely lazy option. Cost saving is very laudable, but the phrase sticks in the throat when all around us we see money wasted.
I think the majority of people in this company would be a lot happier to accept little or no pay rise if they believed the company was not so wasteful.
We're in a recession but wandering round Swanwick on a night shift you see countless offices with lights left on and computers running for no reason (the NATS Corporate Security office springs to mind - unmanned yet lights blazing... I'd have though of all offices they would have been the most switched on at switching off).
We can't even sort that out, so what hope do we have of reducing wasteage elsewhere?
Also, flights overall may be down, but transatlantic flights (NATS biggest money spinner) are not.
Couple that with payment in Euros at a time when the pound is weak and I think you will be surprised at how relatively well NATS performs this quarter.
However, we will of course be subject to the usual scaremongering tactics, which the Union has already acknowledged.
