Public and Commercial Services Union

It is with a great deal of frustration that the PCS NATS Section Executive Committee, have to report that we have been unable to achieve our main objective of getting a consolidated pay rise on basic pay and allowances at least equal to RPI in both 2011 and 2012. This is despite the fact that NATS made a profit last year of over £106 million, up 35%, paid dividends to share holders of £40 million and other trade groups have been offered higher pay awards.

We have had numerous meetings with management and lobbied the NATS Holding Ltd AGM. One member of the PCS negotiating team even transferred one share from NATS Employee Shares Trust Ltd (NESL) to himself to enable him to attend the AGM where the issue was raised and he was able to vote.

Revised offer

However, following our members overwhelming rejection of the last offer, we have been able to get some movement from management, which has now resulted in a revised offer being tabled. If you would like a copy of the revised offer please email Jason Boniface jasonb@pcs.org.uk. Some of the key points are as follows.

2011

• The offer of non-pensionable overtime/VAP is now the individual’s choice and no one will be forced onto this arrangement (under the previous offer everyone would have moved to the non-pensionable VAP or employee handbook terms in 2019)
• An increase from 4% to 4.2% on pay and pay related allowances with effect from 1 January 2011.
• A non-consolidated and non-pensionable lump sum of £400 (pro rata for part timers) to be paid with, the January 2012 pay to all staff in post on 1 January 2012 (with the exception of PTAS and VCA contracts). The £400 equates to between 0.60% for our highest paid members and 2.28% for our lowest. This makes the 2011 offer on basic pay equate to between 4.7% and 6.48% although only 4.2% of this is consolidated 2012.
• An increase from 4.5% to 4.8% on basic pay with effect from 1 January 2012.

SEC and GEC view

The SEC has been aware that over the past few weeks, management have been making contingency arrangements to try to circumvent any action PCS members might take. We are also aware that the difference between what we sought in year one 4.7% and the offer of 4.2% is about £200 a year on average to our members.

It is the SEC’s belief that to get management to move any more would take, not only an overtime ban and work to rule, but also sustained strike action. The cost of this to our members would be considerably more than £200.

Additionally, the SEC believes that the risk to members’ future employment posed by industrial action is significant and not one that we would recommend given the relatively small difference between the offer and RPI.

Some of the suggestions management have made during these pay talks makes it clear to us that we will need a strong union going forward just to protect our existing terms and conditions. The strength of your union is entirely reliant on high membership numbers and density and the risk of significant job losses following a strike, we believe to be too great a risk to be taking over this offer. Our existing agreement to work with management to avoid compulsory redundancies would be at immediate risk, with the resultant consequences for many members, particularly in NSL. These are factors the Executive Committees cannot ignore when considering the offer as a whole.

Whilst this offer may not meet all the genuine aspirations of members, the revised offer, when compared to the previous offers made of 1.5%, 2%, and the 4% year 1 and 4.5% year 2 which was rejected by members in May, is materially a better offer.. We believe that a compounded consolidated basic pay rise of 9.2% over two years and a lump sum of between 0.6% and 2.28% is an offer we cannot afford to reject, especially in light of the alternative course of action.

It is therefore with a great deal of reluctance that both the Section and Group Executive Committees are recommending that members vote YES to this pay offer. If members accept the pay offer, we would expect that the pay offer will be implemented in September salaries.

We would view any change to the previously published offers made to either, or both, of the other constituencies of the NTUS as an act of extreme bad faith by NATS and in such circumstances we will set aside the ballot and immediately seek the authority of the national disputes committee of PCS to ballot members on strike action.