Airport firefighters’ spokesmen Aaron Bailey, left, and Paul Ozanne.
AIRPORT firefighters claimed yesterday that they are paid much less than their counterparts in similar jurisdictions.
The basic is £20,000 and they can expect to be paid an estimated £27,000 per annum after shift allowance and other factors are taken into consideration, said spokesmen Paul Ozanne and Aaron Bailey.
But they claimed staff performing the same role in Jersey earn £10,000 a year more to do the same job. ‘We know we are uncompetitive when it comes to wages,’ said Mr Ozanne. ‘We took so many references from other jurisdictions during our negotiations. We have used Jersey and the Isle of Man and we are way behind.
‘Jersey workers earn £10,000 a year more than us on average.’
Firefighters staged two separate walkouts on Monday that left the airport closed for half-an-hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon.
Mr Bailey said the job was not attractive to many workers and the service experienced a very high turnover rate.
‘We have lost nine people in 18 months and 26 in five years due to the poor wage,’ he said.
‘People who deliver heating oil earn more than us. I don’t think people realise that our goodwill is taken advantage of constantly.’
He said it cost the States £20,000 to train each firefighter.
‘That’s money being thrown down the toilet because the staff get so fed up that they leave,’ he said.
Part of the dispute between the firefighters and the Public Sector Remuneration Committee involves staffing levels.
Workers say they continually have to come in to work on their scheduled days off to provide cover so that the airport can remain open.
CAA regulations state that eight firefighters must be on duty if the larger planes are operating.
Mr Ozanne said there was very real threat that the airport would be forced to close at some point if the staffing issue was not addressed.
‘The big planes not flying on any given day is a huge possibility because the States are not taking responsibility for the provisions needed,’ he said.
Firefighters came in for strong criticism from Flybe for their decision to strike, but Mr Ozanne said the airline’s anger was directed at the wrong party.
‘It’s OK Flybe complaining about our actions, but they really need to take this up with the States,’ he said.
‘They are under threat by the inadequacies of our government.’
Article posted on 23rd July, 2008 - 2.29pm
7 Article Comments
You cannot draw a comparison with Jersey, they found themselves in extreme financial difficulty after the haye Review that awarded obscene pay rises to public sector staff, if they are stating that oil delivery drivers earn more the answer is simple, go and work for an oil delivery company, oh but then you won’t get all those accumulated days off and be able to do two or three other jobs that fit in with shift work, and those jobs are not because you need the extra money to live on, it is for the extra holidays etc
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Good point – there’s an awful lot of time left over for well paid cash work (landscape gardening, general building, trades and fishing etc) when you work two weeks on, one week off.
Be interested to know what a firemans gross wages are with cash work included.
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Beanjar, your comments are as welcome as the after effects of a good bean jar!!! Just to confirm you are exactly right which is why the staff turnover is so high. Do you think its acceptable to work 2 jobs, as that is what has to happen to make ends meet. Talking of ends that is the typical ignorant thoughts from someone who has the same hours in everyday as a fireman. So ask yourself this. Why don’t you start working your wknd’s, getting up at 4.30 finishing your shift and then having to start another days work. By the way not all of us want the mundane life of an office worker. Just stay oblivious in your little bubble!
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Do they work 2 weeks on and get one week off ? I thought they had a set shift rota which was 2 earlies, 2 lates and then 2 days off ……and then back to 2 earlies etc not a week off! Are they any different to the other shift workers like the police, emergency services and the like?
There are many jobs that start work early and finish early – leaving them the rest of the day to enjoy as they like whether that is alternative employment i.e. milk retailers and paper delivery businesses.
Perhaps I am wrong as i am just going by what friends have told me.
The other point is this: if they are having to work on their days off doing ‘well paid cash work such as landscape gardening, general building, trades and fishing’ – who is paying them? No doubt the highly paid fat cats who don’t mind that the income tax and social insurance payments are being ‘avoided’! The other point is if they were not doing these extra jobs who would? There is virtually no unemployment over here – mainly unemployable people. This island already relies on guest workers to do a significant amount of the lower paid work i.e. horticulture, retail, tourism etc but are they paying much income tax? If they have to leave after 9 months do they not get most of their income tax back – which will not be helping to fill the black hole will it?
Beanjar: interesting comment about the Haye review – is this not what our civil servants’ pay is based on though, which is why we have such a wide difference between the pay of civil servants and other public sector workers.
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Bill, I have worked my weekends, very often going through the whole night, no I didn’t have the ‘luxury’ of moving onto another job during the day, one reason was that it was prohibited and yes in the early days of buying a house I could have done with it, but that would have been out of necessity, not luxury to pay for the cars and holidays that most people have come to expect, as for the mundane life of an office worker, it is an unfortunate fact that most of the best paid jobs are ‘white collar’ workers, but then they don’t have the excitment of being an airport fireman. Merlin, not sure about the Haye review for civil servants, pretty sure after their mess up in Jersey they didn’t get another chance, but maybe someone can confirm or deny this?
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A lot of people join the fire service, police or ambulance after getting a trade , for the simple reason of having shift work and being able to do 2 jobs, these guys, like a lot of the town fire men joined for that reason,to double your money, it has been going on for years,and anyone who thinks they need to work 2 jobs to survive is in a dream world,it is pure greed on their part, maybe the effects of zero 10 is kicking in and their insurance stamp has gone up for their part time work and now they want a big rise to cover their part time work expenses.
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“People who deliver heating oil earn more than us”.
BECOME AN OIL DELIVERY MAN, THEN…..
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