Pay and conditions...

[nim2000]

I'm due to start ATCO training late next year and i've got a couple of questions that I didn't ask at the interview stage. My motivation for this career isn't monetary but I have a family so financial/working practice issues are quite important to me.

1. Are you rostered for a fixed number of shifts per month?

2. If you are on a fixed working pattern how is overtime managed and at what rate? (i've seen the £500 per shift bandied around on pprune but i'm a little suspicious!)

3. The renumeration leaflet gave me the impression of a sliding scale of basic once qualified from circa 36k-47k. Is this an automatic annual incremental system or is it performance driven?

4. I asked about opportunities to move between units and I was given a bit of an 'erm, well maybe' answer. Is it Swanwick til death do us part at the moment?

5. I appreciate the training is involved and individuals vary in aptitude but as a mean how long is the average student taking from walking through the door at the college and being validated at an area unit? (I'm working on 2-3 years, am I being touchingly naive?)

Thanks in advance guys.

[TrafficTraffic]

...What questions did you ask then at your interview?

[Dances with Boffins]

I can answer some of your questions.

1. Not qualified to answer

2. Ditto

3. Annual increments, plus London weighting if applicable.

4. NATS currently trains ATCOs at a rate of about 4 Area to 1 Airports. Of the Area controllers, over 90% go to Swanwick. Very few valid Area controllers have attempted to train for Airports work, and this number will decrease by the time you leave the college, as up until this year, all Area controllers had trained for and recieved an Aerodrome control rating during their time at Bournemouth. This practise will cease this year, and all trainees will only train for and recieve ratings applicable to their final posting. This will of course limit the opportunities for further postings later in life, but the ratings would only be usable for 5 years anyway, and thus it seems pointless [to some people] to train an Area controller in the fine art of Low Visibility Ground Movement controlling, when he/she will never use it. If you want to be mobile, beg and plead to be streamed airports once you arrive at the college. The pay doesn't rise as high as for Area work [probably], but you get to see places other than Hampshire.

5. You won't even start at the college until 2004 at the earliest. Allow 12 months for the college course, which will be considerably different from that currently enjoyed by trainee ATCOs. Validatiion training depends on the unit, shorter for Airports though. Swanwick currently uses newly graduated ATCOs from the college as assistants for 9 months before starting their validation training. You don't want to know my opinion on that issue.

[BALIX]

nim2000

I'll answer as best I can - I'm an ATCO of twenty years experience (Gawd, that long?) and work at ScACC but ATCOs at other units might differ in their responses.


1. Are you rostered for a fixed number of shifts per month?

Yes, sort of. What you do is a six on, four off cycle. At ScACC it follows this pattern: Two morning shifts, two afternoon shifts and either two day shifts or two night shifts followed by four days off. I believe that Swanwick's shift pattern is slightly different but still involves six on and four off.

2. If you are on a fixed working pattern how is overtime managed and at what rate? (i've seen the £500 per shift bandied around on pprune but i'm a little suspicious!)

The overtime mentioned on pprune has come about because of the training that folk were required to do for Swanwick. It won't affect you as overtime is not normally available.

3. The renumeration leaflet gave me the impression of a sliding scale of basic once qualified from circa 36k-47k. Is this an automatic annual incremental system or is it performance driven?

A bit of both. You have to validate to move onto the incremental scale from the student scale but then as long as you don't do anything silly, you will progress up an incremental scale that is far too long IMHO. It also depends where you end up. Certain airfield units are ATCO3 posts and, basically, you don't get paid as much there. Even the ATCO2 units have a different top of the scale.

4. I asked about opportunities to move between units and I was given a bit of an 'erm, well maybe' answer. Is it Swanwick til death do us part at the moment?

Erm, well, maybe...It depends a lot on luck and whether or not you pass all the exams! If you end up at Swanwick and validate there, they are unlikely to release you as they are short of bodies. However, there is movement between units on various grounds so it need not be forever.

5. I appreciate the training is involved and individuals vary in aptitude but as a mean how long is the average student taking from walking through the door at the college and being validated at an area unit? (I'm working on 2-3 years, am I being touchingly naive?)

A number of variables here. Assuming you have had a smooth run through the college, you turn up at your posted untit and it could be an age before you get on an initial validation course for whatever reason. Then you might whizz through the validation training or it might take a long time, depending on various circumstances, some of which are out of your control. If things run smoothly, my guess is three years is a reasonable guess but I'm sure those who have just passed through the system will give you a more accurate answer.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy the experience. We all whinge and moan like *******, at work, in the pub, on pprune etc but it's not a bad job really!

[j17]

Balix

Just a small comment on your posting, I dont count working from 0000-0700 hrs on my second night shift then going home to bed for most of the morning as a day off

[nim2000]

Thanks for the answers.

traffictraffic,
my post does read like all i asked was what colour my headset would be but i was wary of looking like i was only interested in the pay packet at the end of the month.

[Findo]

nim2000. Your future pay and conditions are negotiated between your employer and your trade union. They are then published in your Employee Handbook.

That is where you will find your contracted terms and conditions. What you actually work, how often you actually attend and what access you have to overtime or Additional Attendances will depend upon the circumstances of the unit to which you are posted. These will vary according to the unit's needs over a period of years.

[Vlad the Impaler]

You are unlikely to validate at TC/Swanwick in less than 3 years from starting at the college although I don't know how the new college course structure will affect time spent there.