Flying through turbulent times with the Civil Aviation Authority

Maggie Marshall, a senior rep, at the Civil Aviation Authority talks about working through the coronavirus pandemic, her 30 years at the UK’s civil aviation regulator and why, despite once vowing to never join a union again, she has found being a rep both rewarding and educational.

The coronavirus pandemic is wreaking havoc across entire swathes of the economy but the aviation industry is perhaps going to be hit harder than most.

The sector is worth an estimated £60bn to the UK economy and responsible for one million jobs, the vast majority of which are outside of the airlines, such as ground staff, engineers, technicians, air traffic controllers, fire officers, security and a host of other critical roles.

Beyond its economic importance, aviation is also a critical part of the UK’s regional and national infrastructure. And yet, the sector is facing a very real fight for its survival.

One person with a perfect bird’s eye view of an entire industry heading for a crash landing is Prospect rep Maggie Marshall, who has worked at the Civil Aviation Authority for more than 30 years.

Of course, the CAA is not a commercial enterprise but the threat it faces from an industry facing economic collapse is very real.

“The CAA is impacted because we are funded by the industry, but no-one has any money,” says Maggie.

“The other big thing on the horizon is, of course, Brexit, especially on the air worthiness side, where we’ve got to take a lot of the functions back into the CAA. They’re in the tricky position of not wanting to get rid of anybody with the skills that will be required. So it’s a delicate balance at the moment for the CAA.”

Crisis response

As one of Prospect’s senior reps at the CAA, Maggie has been in discussions with management on the organisation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The CAA board, the executive committee and other high earners have taken pay cuts, there’s a recruitment freeze and all capital-intensive projects have been paused.

Furloughing of staff was also discussed but, for now at least, is not being pursued. The outcome was “as fair as they could to be, given the difficult situation,” says Maggie.

The emergence of coronavirus also put paid to any pay talks for the foreseeable future. The CAA is a public corporation that answers to the Department of Transport, even though it is entirely funded by charges on the industry.

So despite, strictly speaking, not being civil servants, Maggie says CAA staff are “treated like civil servants when it suits them, like when it comes to pay rises!”

However, given the current turmoil in the industry, Maggie insists she’s still one of the lucky ones.

“We were just going to start the pay negotiations and then, of course, Covid-19 came out. And now, we’re not going to have a pay rise or anything, which is quite understandable.

“I think in the current climate we’re lucky to have jobs. I’m sure things will be reviewed again, because I don’t see the aviation industry picking up that quickly, to be honest.”

Maggie stresses that through the years, despite the ubiquitous battles over pay and pensions, the CAA has been a fair and responsible employer. For example, through this crisis, everybody has been able to work from home.

“I think the only people going in are a few licensing people to run off licences for pilots, ATCOs and engineers. But other than that, it seems to have worked quite well,” says Maggie.

“I’ll be honest, I was never a fan of working at home because I’ve always enjoyed going to the office and seeing people, but now I’ve got into a routine that suits me and it’s helped that the weather’s been so nice. I can go out for a walk. I’m getting fitter, which is marvellous!”

The working from home and social distancing means that Maggie’s union activities are now also done remotely. She keeps in regular contact with Prospect negotiator John Stevenson and all the branch’s meetings are now conducted on Skype.

“I’ve never used Skype before, I’m quite proud of myself!”

Temping to a 30 year career

Maggie’s career at the CAA started in 1988 as a temp helping out with the typing and admin in the flight crew licensing department. She wasn’t intending to stay around for long.

“I was going to leave in the January, and then they offered me another job in what was then the flight department, where we used to test all the aircraft with test pilots. I had an interview and they seemed quite nice, which turned out to be true because I stayed for another 10 years!”

She went on to become the PA to the head of the flight department before transferring to air traffic standards, where she learned the ropes of ATCO licensing.

“It was quite a different thing for me because I had always done secretarial or assistant type jobs. Whereas this was an actual licencing job with a lot to learn and took a bit of time. ATCO licensing is quite complicated and things got even more complicated with all European legislation.”

Maggie is still in the same department and works on Air Navigation Services Provider (ANSP) oversight, while continuing to be the ATCO licensing referral point.

She’s now been at the CAA for more than 30 years and compares the organisation, in the earlier years, to an oil tanker: “We didn’t change, or the change was very slow, although in recent years the amount of change has increased and the CAA has had to adapt.”

Even so, she remarks, “they must be a good employer because I have stayed so long. They couldn’t get rid of me.”

Union activism

Prior to the CAA, Maggie spent six years working at the post office. It nearly put her off union membership for life.

“They were very militant at the post office. I’m talking 1981 and it was a closed shop. Plus they weren’t all that nice to be honest. When I left the post office, I thought I’m never going to join a union again.”

It wasn’t until 2013 when a restructure at the CAA caused a lot of uncertainty that she ever thought about joining a union again.

“A friend of mine at work, who is now my line manager, actually said to me, ‘Why don’t you consider Prospect? They’re not so radical. They’re quite pragmatic.’ So that’s why I joined Prospect.

“I have found that to be true. Prospect isn’t radical and, you work with the employer, which suits me.”

Maggie became the branch membership secretary through another colleague, Martin Sutton, whose parting gift as he retired and walked out of the door, was to volunteer Maggie for the role that he was vacating.

“Before I knew it, I was a rep. So it wasn’t a conscious decision. But I have to say, I’ve quite enjoyed it and I’ve learned quite a lot, which has been nice. You just get to see how things work. I’ve been involved in some of the previous pay negotiations. That was completely new to me.

“You learn a lot. I’m a magistrate, so you get to know about people and the way people work, which is quite interesting. As much as I think the CAA are very good employers, they sometimes don’t follow their own processes. It’s all about being fair. I like to see people being treated fairly.”