National Association of Air Traffic Specialists

Aviation Safety is Our Business

Bulletin #10

From

Don McLennan

To comprehend the concepts in a pay-banding system we need to understand we are in a one-career family. This captures everything from walking through the door for the first time to becoming a high-level high facility specialist. AAT will have a dual track, career entry level, because they have two bargaining units. Management very much would like to develop a proposal to incentivize developmental’s completion of training. When you reach a certain level of competence you would get a pay increase. For example, when you complete the Academy you get a reward, not when you enter a facility. Somewhat a semantics issue but an important one. There may be a difference in establishing initial, Academy salaries. We recognize it may take varying amounts of money to attract people with differing levels of skills and credentials. This is the issue of "specialized" experience versus no experience at all on initial hiring. Also, once beginning developmental training after Academy graduation the same salary should exist for like levels of experience regardless of which facility level you would ultimately be assigned to.

Pay bumps would begin to differ at the completion of the first level of developmental training. This is an important topic to discuss later – how often do you want to reward developmental employees? Should we establish incremental increases at the developmental levels, or pay the entire difference between Academy graduation and FPL certification all at once? Once you reach the FPL level there may be several bands to move through to become a senior level specialist. We must decide on the number of bands to have and what should be the widths of the bands? Also, do we want them identical or should some bands be different from others, should there be overlapping bands or all the same width, how are they adjusted, and finally, how do we set the bands relationship to one to another?

We also discussed a five level (three now two for the future development of the option) facility structure. Once you become a facility rated FPL you will finally enter the FPL ranks, at three differing levels of facilities at three different levels of pay. What is the relationship between a level one facility to a level two facility to a level three facility? It will depend on how much money for implementation is available, and agreed to, at the contract negotiations level. In the NATCA pay plan there are all kinds of variances and differences in the relationship between percentages of increases between bands and in the band widths. Another aspect of developing a pay system for NAATS will be in establishing expansion levels for future growth. To narrow a band is perceived as cost containment, whereas to separate the bands farther apart is more likely to be costly. The question is how much variability in pay is there for someone doing the same level of work? This questions concerns those people whom are all working within a singular band but who are all being compensated at different rates of pay. More on this as we get it.

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Walter W. Pike, President

This page was last updated on 26 June, 2000