Reasons to be cheerful...or not
Apologies to Ian Dury & the Blockheads for stealing their line.
I will be voting no & here are my reasons.
1... the deal is NOT 10%. the extra money is on spine points only & does not include other allowances.
2... 1.8% of the money will not be seen until December 2003. I believe this is just a ploy to undermine the next round of pay negotiations.
3...I don't know about the centres, but management at airports will do anything rather than pay £500 for an overtime shift. The extra financial disincentive will mean watch managers being put under even more pressure than they are now to operate understaffed & bandbox or close positions. (Of course it's perfectly safe & obviously it would be all my fault if I had an incident as a result.)
4...This is not just a one-off increase I am seeking. I want to see my salary increase in the long term above inflation. I do not think that 5% on pay AND related allowances year on year for the next few years is too much to ask. I had hoped for more than that, but that is the absolute minimum I had decided I was prepared to accept. This deal is significantly short of that AND with strings attached re overtime & extra shifts.
5...Extra operational duties. I don't know the details of this so please forgive me. But as I see it a shift that "may" be converted to an operational duty = a shift that WILL be.
I do thank the union negotiators who have made some progress over the initial offer. However as in diplomacy sometimes talking can only get you so far & you have to weild the big stick. I feel it is important that we do not back down now until we have a deal that a large majority of the staff feel they can back. This is important for the present, and also signals our determination as a workforce to be taken seriously in the future.
Thanks for listening.