Virgin Crew Pay Ballot Have You Had Enough
 

Hi all,
last week i am delighted to say that virgin cabin crew turned down a recent pay agreement, included in this agreement the company wanted to introduce monthly standby for crew and offered a miserable increase in sector pay and basic salary. I have worked for virgin for numerous years now and like many others have had enough the pay is terrible and the moral is at an all time low. After the ballot result was announced the head of cabin services had the cheek to say "just because we turned the proposal doesnt mean we are getting more money" personnally i found this an absolute insult and have spoken to many of my colleagues at work who have also agreed that it is time for the crew to take action and be heard hopefully a possible strike will come about and the mangement will take notice
I am calling on all Virgin cabin crew and other airline crew to express your comments thank you xxx

tcx
 

hi, i´d love to express my opinion but i´m affraid most of us dont know Virgin job contracts: basic pay, pay per sector, dead heading allowance, commisions...etc.
I thought you have pretty good conditions! (because i know a few TCX cabin crew who are leaving just to join Virgin)

Just to clarify, is this Virgin Atlantic we are talking about (as opposed to Virgin Blue, Virgin Nigeria, or any other parts of the empire)?

hi guys thank you for your replys

heres how virgin atlantic pay structure works

as a new junior cabin crew member

you clear in your monthly salary £800-£875 a month this includes your commission which is usually about £15 a month

for each trip you do you are paid around £25 a return sector

when you arrive at your outstation hotel you recieve a food allowance for example if you night stop in jfk you will receive
$176 us dollars

on a senior cabin crew your are clearing between £900-£950 a month
and a purser or c.s.s cabin service supervisor its about £200 more on top of a senior salary

while doing S.e.p you have to pay for your own accomdation and travel expenses out of your basic pay
so that is five night accomdation in a b&b and food which you have to pay for

thanks

Why do you say you have to pay for 5 nights B&B when doing your SEPs?

Do you have to go somewhere you aren't normally based? Or do you not live near your base, where the SEPs are? If it's the latter then that's your choice surely.

cheers :D
FF

not so bad
 

for what i´ve just read about Virgin pay i´d like to say it´s not bad at all!!! i don´t really know why you moan so much!
if you compare it with other airlines you´ll see you pay is very good.
when i´m downroute i just get 60 pounds per day (=2.63 pounds per hour) and no extra money for food. We just get accomodation.
And i dont have the chance to fly to so many destinations as you in Virgin.

Jur99llk,
A typical comment from someone who is not in the company. Do not forget that the wage increases in companies like Virgin should improve T & Cs in smaller companies. I have seen the pay deal and to be honest it sucks! Not so much the bottom line increase but the fact that the more senior the crew are the lower the % rise.

.
 

"fact that the more senior the crew are the lower the % rise" .
Yes, in this point i agree with you. It´s not very normal that Pursers and senior cabin crew dont earn as much as they should... ´cause they have much more responsability than the rest.
But wages for junior cabin crew seem to be pretty good!!

re pay deal!!
 

hi everyone ,

well i've been junior at Virgin for a year now and i new what the pay was when I joined and I honestly dont think it is as bad as everyone makes out.... however i definatly think we deserve more and Virgin can afford to pay us alot more and bring is in line with our main competitor.

It really irritates me when the cabin crew manager uses the terrible excuses of the recent attacks on london. There will always be something that the company will have to deal with , tsunami, ecconomy downfall, dollar rate decline,terrorism and the price of fuel. So come on stop using these situations to justify any kind of decent pay deal.

lets unite Virgin girls and get what we deserve for the fabulous job we do! I f u are not in the union get in it! its aprox £9 a month but it will make us so much stronger if we are all in it . The flight deck have such a strong union ( almost 100% of them are in it) and they negotiated a 33% pay increase how does that compare to our measly 3/4 % !!

thanks glamourgirl!

Stop your moaning. You get all sorts of perks other airline staff don't. the tribe card giving good discounts on products within the Virgin group, very generous staff travel, upgrades to Upper class for all not just top management, the away from base allowances are better than most I know of.

So what do you do today that makes you 'deserve' more money? What is different from what you were doing 12 months ago?

If you think you deserve more quantify why, don't just come out with a crass comment 'we deserve more'. It is almost as pathetic as the whine of 'It's not fair' if a child doesn't get it's way.

So do tell, what makes this pay round different? Is it a bit of opportunism because they announced a big profit? So I expect you'll be volounteering for a pay cut next year because the fuel costs have rocketed.

Sorry guys and gals but from what I know of your pay and conditions you don't have too much to moan about.

I do not, and never have, worked for Virgin Atlantic.

yes all those fantastic benefits we recieve but sadly cannot afford to use ......
those fantastic staff travel tickets that cost about a quater of your basic pay ....
those wonderiful tribe cards that get you a whopping 10% discount...
and sadly if you have never worked for virgin you simply dont understand how badly we are paid compare out wages to the rest of the industry we are the second lowest paid long haul airline in the world air india crew are just behind us and i think that about sums it up
thanks

well surely not if you have or never will work for virgin its got nothing to do with you then has it?

nothing is different from 1 year ago except inflation, my mortgage has gone up by £80 a month and council tax by £20. So i think it is fair to fight for a better pay deal which compares to our competiors. thanks for your comments!

I hadn't spotted the example of the New York nightstop pay you get cash in hand, which you mentioned before virgincrew99 .

You said it was $176 - I'm sure you realise that is nearly £100. Now how long's that for - 1 or 2 nights? Let's be generous and say 2 nights. If you're eating your way through £100 in 2 nights in New York then you're scoffing at the wrong places......or you're a blimp!!

So do you not count any of that money you have left over in your total salary calculations? If not, why not?

cheers ;)
FF

hi all,
just out of interest
FormerFlyer

who did you work for before?

clearly you have no idea the value of money ? how about you visit your local mortgage advisor and see what they will offer you for a mortgage on a virgin atlantic salary and see their reaction.....they laugh!! our allowances are not taken into account when you apply for a mortgage therefore you couldnt even buy a shed.... the company asks us to live within a radius of 1hour 30minutes from gatwick or heathrow look at the housing prices in these areas?? wow our massive allowance of $176 when you take into account your travel cost to and from work your meals downroute sadly your are lucky enough if you manage to bring home $30... and i must say i am running to the bank to lodge it... come on...
glamour girl! thank you for your comments they are quite true inflation goes up and our salaries at virign have never been in line with it...
thanks
xxx

Bloody hell virgin99 I thought things were bad in bmi. Keep up the fight and if I see you in BOM LAS or BGI I''l get you drink...:eek:

thanks royal family for all your support ...could do with a drink!!! see u downroute
thanks

I work for VS as cabin crew and can only say that I knew what the pay was when i joined. Yes, the salay is low - as it is for most airlines but I knew this. I have worked scheduled and charter short haul and although I get less money in my monthly pay check I work a lot less these days.

I haven't heard any of those people moaning pointing out the number of days off a month we get. This month i have had 12 days off and this is not unusual. If you are a normal 9-5 worker you would only get 8 days off - so obviously we aren't going to earn as much.

Sorry guys but you don't have my support - and personally would prefer the monthly standby.

Shortm

a perfect example of someone that is not willing to fight for anything or has the immaturity that is a crew member who has been brain washed by virgin

i bet shortm isnt even in the union..

like many crew members i have spoken to they say to me "i cant afford it" even though its only around £9 a month...cant afford to be in the union well theres your first reason to join..

as for the monthly standby personally i think your been really inconsiderate to your fellow employees.. how can a commuter from manchester glasgow or anywhere else in europe be on standby for a month... i am not a commuter... but to be honest all it takes for the company is to get a monthly standbys approved and what next...cleaning the cabin on turnarounds... what if you only get called out twice in that standby month will you be complaining about your pay and conditions then shortm hmmmm lets wait and see

we are fighting for better working conditions more respect /./.

i dont mean to offend you but you should know that cabin crew jobs are not well paid, and if you are not happy with what virgin pays why dont you move to a different airline or come out of cabin crew all together and go into a job what does pay well.
i do agree with you virgin should pay more to cabin crew but some of the benefits seem to be excellent.

good luck with your pay rise, and hope you all get what you deserve. MORE MONEY

Hang on, hang on!

This is a DISCUSSION forum and everyone has the right to their own opinion. This thread is discussing conditions at Virgin and users like shortm have every right to express what they think without being shot down for being "immature" and "brain-washed by the company." Maybe the monthly standby would have worked for some people, hence the reason for a crew ballot.

I voted NO because I didn't think it was a good enough offer and as a commuter, the monthly standby wouldn't have worked for me. I've been at Virgin for 8 months now having previously worked for a low-cost airline as a CA1 for 2 years. My pay has dropped by about £200 a month since I joined VA but, in all fairness, I knew what the package was when I joined the company. My main reason for wanting to be a VirginGal was to see the world and to go straight into long-haul. The staff travel concessions are excellent and it's a fun airline to work for so in that respect I'm very happy at Virgin. Having said that, I can't see myself with VA in 18 months time purely because I cannot afford it! By that time, I will have seen most of the destinations we fly to but the salary and career progression is not good enough to make this a long term career option.

I am surprised though, at how poorly we are paid in comparison to other long haul airlines. I think that is the main reason that people want to hold out for a better pay deal. I can't see many people voting yes to industrial action, I don't think the union is strong enough.

I guess we'll see...