Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) members working for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) are being balloted on industrial action following the imposition of a derisory pay offer.
As per the Union, the CAA staff working in the offices at Gatwick Airport and at Canary Wharf, made an offer well below deals won by PCS members in other parts of the aviation industry. The offer is 4% for the lowest-earners, and 3% for other grades.
The union has negotiated pay deals at Heathrow, worth more than 15% over 2 years, and at NATS, worth 17% over three years. The CAA’s inadequate offer, which is less than the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance, leaves CAA pay dragging behind the rest of the aviation sector.
Our members at the CAA help carry out significant roles such as the issuing of pilots and aircraft licences, testing of equipment, carrying out inspections, managing the regulation of security standards, including vetting of all personnel in the aviation industry.
They have faced years of below-inflation pay awards, which amount to substantial pay cuts in real terms. This offer, the latest in a series of insulting ones, represents the final straw for PCS members who are now voting on strike action and action short of strike to force their employer to make an offer that addresses years of pay degradation.
Union activists at the CAA will be out leafletting their offices in the coming weeks, recruiting new members to the union and drumming up support for the ballot. The ballot began today and closes at noon on 23 December.
A PCS rep within the CAA said:
“I enjoy working for the CAA but our pay has significantly reduced over the years in line with inflation levels and the way it has been implemented demonstrates a lack of respect that CAA managers have for their own workforce, who work extremely hard to provide a good service for the whole of aviation.”
In a protest against being ordered back to the workplace, last month, Civil servants threatened possible strike action after being told they will have to come into work at least three days a week.
Thousands of government officials at the Land Registry are due to be balloted next week on a potential walkout over a requirement to work from the office for 60 per cent of the week.
