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Chapter 11   The Rolls Royce Fiasco

I turned up ready to work at Rolls Royce on February the second, I was a day late due to plane trouble, and I was greeted with “where have you been”: they hastily convened a meeting to consider my absence for the last month, we gathered around the board room table, my bosses, personnel department, the wages department the union representatives and myself: about twelve people in all.

Tom my immediate boss flatly denied all knowledge about me having spoken to him prior to my departure to request my January holiday, so technically I was absent from work for one month, no one would admit that they knew where I was, so I said “ all right what are you going do about it”

The union convener, who by the way normally sat two desks away from me, was ringing his hands and saying “ I know we can do without this trouble, we have got a pay  claim coming up” I never got one word of support from any of my superiors or my work colleagues.

We sat there for about half an hour with nothing being decided so eventually I said “OK, I will finish work at the end of February” there was a sigh of relief all round, and then I was told not to bother to work the rest of the month, just to pick up my personal belongings and they will pay me until the end of February.

My projects were the Pegasus for the Harrier, 199 for the Tornado and the 593 Concorde engines.

So that’s just what I did I cleared out my desk, climbed in my car and that’s the last I saw of the gutless morons.