Flights fear over pay
Wednesday 4th February 2009, 2:30PM GMT.
GUERNSEY’S airport could close at any time as a result of a failure to settle a long-term pay dispute with firefighters.
It emerged yesterday that they were each paid a £1,000 ‘sweetener’ last year to guarantee cover for colleagues when the number on duty fell below that required to provide the minimum service.
A spokesman for the men would not comment on or deny reports that they were asking for a 25% pay rise – or about £5,450.
Their basic pay of £21,800 rises to about £27,000 with add-ons for things such as overtime, which he said was much less than their counterparts in places such as Jersey and the Isle of Man.
But he said the findings of an independent report into the running of Guernsey Airport, commissioned by the Public Services Department, had vindicated their request for a better pay deal.
‘All we want is to be recognised for the service that we provide the island,’ said the spokesman.
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What a shambles 6 months to resolve this issue heads should role! Poor managment all round, once again the island is being black mailed by 30 odd individuals that have the power to shut the airport at any time sounds familiar! What caos on Sunday 1 Firefighter goes sick? airport comes to a stand still lets hope this individual produced a medical certificate! I work for a states Dept. which includes overtime as necessary Ive never been given £1000.00 of tax payers money as a thank you for covering sickness. My suggestion would be to employ another person per shift so that these poor individuals dont have to work all this overtime, Ive heard that some indivduals at the airport fire service are earning £1000.00 to £1500.00 extra per month in overtime some of us only just clear £1500.00 as a basic wage! Wake up airport firemen and get real theres a financial crisis world wide you like the rest of us are going to have to accept what is a very good pay rise of 3%.
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I agree that the public are the big losers all round – as people using the flights and also having to pay the tax that these payments have cost.
All the firefighters are asking for is more staff OR on-call pay. Other sectors have this so what is the huge problem? Compared to the huge overtime costs it seems a no-brainer to me (but i am not an accountant). They earn about £22,000 a year which is not a lot and surely the States could afford that instead of paying out twice as much per person in overtime pay?
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Guernsey should not be held to ransome and the same should apply to other depts as well.
If they or anybody want to play bully then I suggest that they’re sacked, loose pensions and get retainers in from the UK or other to cover.
I’m sure there are loads of others that would love the opportunity to have a career in such a service.
Don’t be greedy. Everyone is struggling at the moment.
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If Flybe’s CEO, Ian Taylor, says this is incompetence not experienced anywhere else in all the European airports Flybe operate from the Island should listen. Islanders are paying top salaries for competent airport management from senior Civil Servants but are not getting value for their money. Heads should roll!
The fireman are perhaps unjustified in all their demands but how can one fireman not turning up for work be allowed to cancel flights and inconvenience 800 travelling passengers. How can one fireman be allowed to give rise to a claim for £100,000 of losses by not turning in to work? Has nobody in the airport management heard of contingency planning? Why were the airport management unable to say to another fireman here is £100 if you turn in for work to cover this short shift this morning if it could have saved the States £100,000? Why has there not been a high profile recruitment drive for fireman? Why have the fireman not been offered a different shift pattern or something been planned ahead to ensure extra cover? Why have no temporary fireman been brought in from outside the Island to cover the known shortfall?
What kind of an international business centre is Guernsey if it cannot even keep its airport operational with any certainty from one day to the next?
What is the point of talking about extending the runway if the Island has not got enough firefighters to keep it open!
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If the States and/or airport management do resolve the problem of the lack of sickness cover by recruiting extra men how long do you think the firefighters will take to complain about earning no overtime money?
The on call issue is nothing more than a smokescreen, this is all them about wanting better basic pay so they don’t have to do the overtime.
We all want more for less but fortunately for Guernsey most of us are not in the situation of being able to hold the island to ransom.
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It has been suggested in a consultation report (according to today’s Guernsey Press) that the airport be privatised. Would this work – who knows? It would certainly be worth discussing if it would mean that the airport management have control over their services. It worked for the electricity board – although whether it did much to keep the prices down is another matter. I know staff who work there who now earn better salaries, have bonus schemes and health insurance – and they kept their pension! They are doing the same job as when they were working for the States but better off.
The airport manager is also a well known radio presenter so it is not only low paid civil servants who have two jobs. This islands’ leaders do not appear to be thinking strategically at all – they just continue to throw good money after bad, paying for consultative reports which they ignore time and time again. Something needs to be done before we become the laughing stock of the world.
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