<<With regards to ATCOs negotiating a better pay rise by volunteering to take on a task done by another group, what if that other group had already given up that task and its’ members were already leaving the company on voluntary redundancy?>>
At my unit only 2 have taken VR, and for reasons other than 'giving up the task'. No sign of the others legging it through the terminal with wheelbarrows full of cash.
<<As far as I understand it, at no time has the ATCO team offered to take the job of any other trade group.>>
To quote the letter you posted: Management insist any deal must deliver items including an open ended AAVA agreement and MET provision. Our views as to the value of these items differ significantly.
In other words, show us a decent amount of cash and we'll consider it.
<<If in doubt, see the quote referring to the PCS Aviation Section meeting.
“At the meeting it was AGREED that the way forward was to protect as many ATSA jobs as we could at airports and one way we could achieve that was ensuring that the task of MET Observation was a core task of ATSAs during the day but that we would look at the task being undertaken by ATCOs at night, and as a contingency during the day (when no ATSA cover could be found and only as a last resort) ”>>
With the changes in ORO and rostering, that contingency and 'last resort', will become more of a 'norm' before you know it. The sure fire way of protecting the remaining ATSA positions is not to enter into any form of negotiation with regards to covering MET, simples.
<<The last thing we want to do when we approach such a critical stage is to be fooled into becoming a split workforce.>>
Oop's, too late.