Spanish Air Traffic Controller on £800,000

Greebo

Greebo

Greebo

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I heard on the news coming home tonight that the average wage of air traffic controllers in Spain is £300,000 per annum, 28 of them earn over £600,000 and one earnt £800,000 last year:eek:.

Overtime rates are £500 per hour.:eek:


And these are the ones who are normally going on strike over pay during peak periods.:mad: Apparantly, that is why they get paid so much now according to the Spanish Government.

And I thought we had problems with certain jobs being overpaid in this country and that is working for the state over there.

Their union claim that the salaries are justified as they have to be highly trained and are responsible for the lives of lots of people. That is all true but how can that justify more money than say the prime minister, the top general of your army, a brain surgeon etc?

Just as a comparison apparantly the average wage for controllers in the uk is £60,000 pa.

And on another note I heard today that France is pushing for a 32 hour maximum working week.

Anybody get the feeling we work the hardest, longest and get paid the worst in the uk?
 
Well, the UK workforce certainly doesn't work the hardest, that's nonsense. The other stuff is debatable.

I think Scuzi is still an ATC and there are - or were - others on here who can shed light on the £60k average. Sounds low to me.
 
Personally I think those in control of 100s of lives where the wrong/right decision could have disastrous consequences should be well paid and not working overly long hours... tho 800K might be a bit much - but is that what they actually get paid or what their hourly rate would add upto? IIRC as well one mistake can end their career so its another reason to be well paid IMO.
 
Well those are somewhat skewed figures...the average wage of £300,000 is only with overtime, the average is about half that. Still too high, but not stratospheric. I can think of some other professions that I'd rather see have their pay cut first.

(Source. Note that in typical Daily Mail fashion they manage to contradict themselves within two paragraphs beginning 'The average basic salary...')
 
Masterdog said:
Well those are somewhat skewed figures...the average wage of £300,000 is only with overtime, the average is about half that. Still too high, but not stratospheric. I can think of some other professions that I'd rather see have their pay cut first.

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I never said it was basic but yes it is indeed average including overtime. That still makes it a valid average wage as clearly there or loads of people working overtime.

However, that is my other issue. For such a responsible job and as Rroff said, they are in control of a lot a lives, I am surprised that they are allowed to so much overtime that their normal salary of £150,000 to £200,000 can end up being over £600,000 (for 28 people's case).

I would train more people to be controllers and have them all work a basic week. There can't be short of too many applicates if the job pays £150,000 to £200,000 basic, can there?

I see a lot of them were laywers and doctors who re-trained. Lol. Guess they could earn more.

Interesting to see there is some debate over the hours works as well. One side says 24 hours plus 8 hrs average overtime and the union says 40 hours basic plus 10 hours average overtime.

Also, Magnolia is right. basic in uk is £60k with average inc overtime = £90k.

I'd still move to Spain to be one there if I was trained and working here.
 
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How does the average wage of a job role in one country have any relation to that of another country?
 
GreatAuk said:
Well, it is a job with lots of responsibility and I suppose if the employers have let it get to this then that's their fault... But yeah, that's quite ridiculous!



LOL!
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Well, perhaps it's just me who feels I am doing that then! ;)

And yes it's the government's fault over there but now the pay is so high they are looking at getting rid of them all and replacing them with a computer.......:eek:

I think I would rather have them overpaid!
 
King85 said:
How does the average wage of a job role in one country have any relation to that of another country?
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Cause we live in the European Union with freedom to work in any country and roughly similar pay in most major European countries?

Average Spanish wage is £20k and here I think's it's £24k so roughly jobs should be on par across the EU otherwise you see a massive movement of people to the highest paying country especially in skilled jobs.

And I was mainly pointing out that I thought we had problems over here but that Spain has it worse.
 
Rroff said:
Personally I think those in control of 100s of lives where the wrong/right decision could have disastrous consequences should be well paid and not working overly long hours... tho 800K might be a bit much - but is that what they actually get paid or what their hourly rate would add upto? IIRC as well one mistake can end their career so its another reason to be well paid IMO.
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Going by that account how much should the PILOT get?
 
They do a fair number of hours in a week (54) in a highly stressful and important job, they deserve a good wage.
 
arknor said:
my point was to your qoute that suggests pilots should get a lot more when in reality pilots mainly just monitor and are there as a backup
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How is the role of a ATC different to that of a pilot? Most flights are cleared along standard departures/arrivals and airways with flight levels organised by Eurocontrol. ATC monitor the progress of the flight along its flight planned route in the same way a pilot would. A good pilot "drives" ATC by requesting clearances that give him/her the most efficient route to destination. Ultimately the safety of all on board is the responsibility of the pilot-in-command.
 
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