Trade Group 1 Pay Rise

[MrMasher]

I think the job needs sorting out first, mate!
Out of the sandpit, time at home, and sort the manning levels out.

I'm dreaming, aren't I???

But thats part of why manning levels are low.

Pay in civvie street, as we are repeatedly told, is now better than techie pay. People see this, train and then leave.

Pay them more and they may stay in longer.
Pay more and people in civvie street might consider the RAF techie as a route into engineering.

 

[Bucc Boy]

But thats part of why manning levels are low.

Pay in civvie street, as we are repeatedly told, is now better than techie pay. People see this, train and then leave.

Pay them more and they may stay in longer.
Pay more and people in civvie street might consider the RAF techie as a route into engineering.

'A route into engineering' used to sound so good. It made me think of elitism, achieving the most you could with the hard earned qualifications gained at school. However, as we all know you could have been a waster at school (like me) but still had an 'aptitude' for engineering - hence the Mechs and a whole lot of post school studying to prove themselves........But hey, all the classroom time was worth it and to justify the amount of study and aptitude required for such an achievement we were awarded the post title of TG 1/2 and financial incentives i.e. higher pay.

Given the option now to use the RAF as a route into engineering, I would feel most p1ssed off with the AFCO for not telling me about the other career opportunities which although financially on a par, didn't involve years of classroom work, 2 extra ranks to merit through, possible permanent shift work and consequently...........less chance of achieving the same pension grade as the 'other' career paths.

Sorry the post was so long but I felt I had to totally justify myself when I say, I don't consider the modern day RAF to be a good route into engineering at all.

 

[MrMasher]

'A route into engineering' used to sound so good. It made me think of elitism, achieving the most you could with the hard earned qualifications gained at school. However, as we all know you could have been a waster at school (like me) but still had an 'aptitude' for engineering - hence the Mechs and a whole lot of post school studying to prove themselves........But hey, all the classroom time was worth it and to justify the amount of study and aptitude required for such an achievement we were awarded the post title of TG 1/2 and financial incentives i.e. higher pay.

Given the option now to use the RAF as a route into engineering, I would feel most p1ssed off with the AFCO for not telling me about the other career opportunities which although financially on a par, didn't involve years of classroom work, 2 extra ranks to merit through, possible permanent shift work and consequently...........less chance of achieving the same pension grade as the 'other' career paths.

Sorry the post was so long but I felt I had to totally justify myself when I say, I don't consider the modern day RAF to be a good route into engineering at all.

Fair enough, I cant disagree with you there.
However, I was attempting to be positive!
Perhaps a nice big dangly carrot would be for the RAF to pay for techies aircraft licences within their last few years for Cpl and above on a 22 year engagement? It would guarantee a return of service to 22 and something to aim for as a bonus for having stayed in the pension trap!

 

[Realist78]

Fair enough, I cant disagree with you there.
However, I was attempting to be positive!
Perhaps a nice big dangly carrot would be for the RAF to pay for techies aircraft licences within their last few years for Cpl and above on a 22 year engagement? It would guarantee a return of service to 22 and something to aim for as a bonus for having stayed in the pension trap!

Trouble is MM, that means cold hard cash as investment. It ain't gonna happen.::/:

 

[T55]

Given the option now to use the RAF as a route into engineering, I would feel most p1ssed off with the AFCO for not telling me about the other career opportunities which although financially on a par, didn't involve years of classroom work, 2 extra ranks to merit through, possible permanent shift work and consequently...........less chance of achieving the same pension grade as the 'other' career paths.

So right! At this very moment I could be lying in bed wondering whether my juniors were burning the sausages and looking towards retirement at age 55 instead of trying to magic aircraft from somewhere to meet the flying programme and worrying about where I'm going to work when I leave aged 48.

 

[Captain Gatso]

'A route into engineering' used to sound so good. It made me think of elitism, achieving the most you could with the hard earned qualifications gained at school. However, as we all know you could have been a waster at school (like me) but still had

an 'aptitude' for engineering - hence the Mechs and a whole lot of post school studying to prove themselves........But hey, all the classroom time was worth it and to justify the amount of study and aptitude required for such an achievement we were awarded the post title of TG 1/2 and financial incentives i.e. higher pay.

Given the option now to use the RAF as a route into engineering, I would feel most p1ssed off with the AFCO for not telling me about the other career opportunities which although financially on a par, didn't involve years of classroom work, 2 extra ranks to merit through, possible permanent shift work and consequently...........less chance of achieving the same pension grade as the 'other' career paths.

Sorry the post was so long but I felt I had to totally justify myself when I say, I don't consider the modern day RAF to be a good route into engineering at all.

I agree with you there BB. I will give an example. We have Traniees working for us. These lads have done two years at College and got all the Modules from the CAA for there B1 and B2 Licence. All they are doing now is getting the experience they need to become fully qualified. We have one lad who is only 22 and in the next few years he is going to be earning more money than a WO, possibly a SENGO. He wont be behind a desk moving paperwork though, he will be working fixing Aircraft, like the rest of us. What kind of a recruiting incentive does that give. If I had known about this when I first joined up, I would have seriously reconsiderd my options. These young lads that I work with are no less clever than the blokes I joined up with as techies, yet the civvy route seems so much more geared to offer a decent financial+ academic incentive than the Military. If there are any Officer types reading this, who are part of the training scheme, is this not the case? Money unfortunatly makes the world go round and there are very few people that I know nowadays that think of Queen and Country more than that of there Wallets. Sad I know, however that is the reality that we are all living with now.

 

[8:15fromOdium]

Captain while I agree that Licenses are a good idea the problem lies in:

These lads have done two years at College

, we no longer train to this depth. The jump from fitters/DE/Appo course to licenses was not huge, now (having talked to the 'modern' apprentices) it is much greater.

 

[ady eflog]

I have done 18 years now and been a Sgt for 4 years and the only thing keeping me in is the fact that I will probably get promoted before 22yrs therefore increasing my pension. Otherwise I would have joined so many of my fellow riggers I have worked with down at stanstead or luton earning £4K a month, fair enough it's hard work and involves overtime but at least you have the opportunity to earn more through overtime and are not being dick danced around trying to do the impossible with no spares and little manpower that are totally demoralised. You know it's getting bad when sh*t creak paddle store is out of stock.

 

[Impboy]

We had a visit the other day from AOC Manning. During a meeting with the chiefs someone brought up a senario where 2 guys go into the AFCO 1 going in as an AMM the other as an adminer. The adminer will be out of training within a couple of months 3/4 yrs later he is a Cpl. The AMM will spend 6 months at Cosford learning his trade, spend the next 2 yrs or so being employed as a general dogs body. If he does well he will then go back to Cosford on a fitters course. 18 months later he will pass out as a techie, once he has completed his BTEC etc and spent 3 yrs out in the real world he may get his tapes. Meanwhile Adminer man is pushing for his 3rd. The question put to AOC blokey was where is the incentive to join as an engineer now as both now are getting paid the same. He couldn't answer the question.
I have just under 6 months to go before I join the real world after having done 23 yrs. I am applying for jobs that are offering 35k starting, with my pension on top I will be a lot better off then if I stay in and did my LOS 30. DT_Xtremez_15:

 

[waster]

trade group 1 pay rise

trade group 1 pay rise

Apparently the Air Force is about 1000 Technicians under strength at the moment and its going to get worse. Part of the retention problem is the fact that Admin staff and Drivers are getting paid the same as Aircraft Technicians. Don't get me wrong, they do an important job but what other company in the world, pay their admin staff the same as their engineers.......
All of TG1 might as well remuster to another high pay band trade or consider leaving. Believe me in about 3 to 5 years there will not be enough TG1 people to allow us to carry on at the current tempo. The pay structure needs to be reviewed.:S

 

[PTR Hoar]

I think we are all in agreement that it defo needs sorting out but me and my pessimistic view on life makes me think that if they do start looking into giving us a pay boost they won't bother their arse's till 2010, at the very earliest!

 

[bigted28]

There's gotta be some kind of truth to this rumour, as OC FSW came and gave our shift a brief, finishing on the line that there are many disgruntled techies, the powers that be are more than aware of this and are trying to formulate a solution. He said one possible solution would be to introduce a 3rd tier, as they knew from the off that Pay 2000 would never work, rather like a communist regieme!

 

[The Masked Geek]

There's gotta be some kind of truth to this rumour, as OC FSW came and gave our shift a brief, finishing on the line that there are many disgruntled techies, the powers that be are more than aware of this and are trying to formulate a solution. He said one possible solution would be to introduce a 3rd tier, as they knew from the off that Pay 2000 would never work, rather like a communist regieme!

Let's hope TG3 I mean 4 are included in this. DT_Xtremez_28:

 

[Realist78]

There's gotta be some kind of truth to this rumour, as OC FSW came and gave our shift a brief, finishing on the line that there are many disgruntled techies, the powers that be are more than aware of this and are trying to formulate a solution. He said one possible solution would be to introduce a 3rd tier, as they knew from the off that Pay 2000 would never work, rather like a communist regieme!

Nero the violin player springs to mind!DT_Xtremez_17:

 

[Realist78]

There's gotta be some kind of truth to this rumour, as OC FSW came and gave our shift a brief, finishing on the line that there are many disgruntled techies, the powers that be are more than aware of this and are trying to formulate a solution. He said one possible solution would be to introduce a 3rd tier, as they knew from the off that Pay 2000 would never work, rather like a communist regieme!

"I say Rupert, the solution is staring us in the face, all we need to do is differentiate between our @rses and elbows...Oh bugger!"DT_Xtremez_28:

 

[bombdasand]

One of my liney's came from the Stn Cdr's briefing yesterday with some interesting quotes from the man himself, but the one that got me listening was that the heads of the MOD/RAF know they have royally fcuked up with the pay for other trades going to higher pay band, they apparently realise how disenchanted Techies gave become and to that end Stn Cdr, from what he is hearing, is that all Trade Group 1, all ranks will next pay review be recieving between 8-10% pay rise. Anyone else heard anything.

Also at SNCO's Stn Cdr brief on Monday he was saying that the new pay rise when promoted from Cpl to Sgt was going to be 8%.

Please don't turn this thread into a trade v trade pay dispute, just printing what was being mentioned during these briefings.

Any other info would be great.

Absolute dreamland mate. as if the idiot JPA programmers could raise only the trade group 1 pay.

we will be lucky if we get 1% this year.

wish i was a bloody adminer.

 

[MrMasher]

Apparently the Air Force is about 1000 Technicians under strength at the moment and its going to get worse.


Believe me in about 3 to 5 years there will not be enough TG1 people to allow us to carry on at the current tempo. The pay structure needs to be reviewed.:S

TG1 are at 85% manning, or so I heard an AOC type say. Apparently we could shed some more as the powers that be arent too worried yet. The way in which he put this suggests we may have more cuts coming in TG1. He kind of said it without saying it if you know what I mean.
Its a big worry.

 

[Albert Park]

TG1 are at 85% manning, or so I heard an AOC type say. Apparently we could shed some more as the powers that be arent too worried yet. The way in which he put this suggests we may have more cuts coming in TG1. He kind of said it without saying it if you know what I mean.

What exactly did he say, without saying it?

 

[MrMasher]

What exactly did he say, without saying it?

I cant remember it word for word, but it made us prick our ears up. To hear someone high up acknowledge that we are at 85% manning and then say that it isnt yet a problem was jaw dropping. He envisaged cuts in the future.
I think JFH will be cut myself. But thats a different thread..........

 

[BillyBunter]

Well considering we were at about 120% strength last year thats a significant loss in a year
Well the powers above know what they are doing , they have been told for years this was coming but we have to trust them. DT_Xtremez_06: