This story is circulating the Internet.
For some years the British Airways Unions have taken numerous industrial actions to protect their members – some with good reason but many have damaged the business. The unions are run by senior staff who have jealously guarded their own position – even at the expense of Junior staff. For some years the British Airways Unions have taken numerous industrial actions to protect their members – some with good reason but many have damaged the business. The unions are run by senior staff who have jealously guarded their own position – even at the expense of Junior staff. The result has been world leading pay scales, benefits, working hours and other benefits for senior staff which have made it for them and not Junior staff or passengers “The World’s Favourite Airline”.
B.A has a bewildering number of pay scales and benefits which are heavily biased towards long service senior staff who all earn far more than the Prime Minister or captains of industry and at the same time, work less hours and enjoy first class benefits.
The current pandemic has brought B.A to its knees and its survival is threatened – as is many other airlines where overhead and pay scales are far lower.
B.A need to cut the workforce by 12,000 staff –1,200 being long service captains and pilots – of which 800 are employed by the Boeing 747 fleet. These Jumbo jets are old, have inefficient fuel guzzling engines and cannot compete with modern aircraft in fuel efficiency. B.A have decided to scrap them.
To make matters worse the Airbus A380 double deck Jumbo plane has proved to be a white elephant and its production has been stopped by Airbus due to a lack of sales. Airlines no longer want it and those that already employ them want to get rid of them. It is the biggest commercial plane in the World and can carry up to 800 passengers. Fully loaded it weighs 550 tons and there are relatively few airfields that it can operate from with a full fuel load. It’s not just the size and facilities of the destination airfield that is the decider – it is because by law, aircraft must have a suitable diversion runway in the event of an emergency at any point during the flight. This makes it impossible to fly some routes due to the lack of suitable diversions.
B.A are not alone in wanting to rid themselves of the A380 – which like the Boeing Jumbo is crewed by senior staff.
Negotiations with the B.A Unions have broken down and B.A told the unions that if a suitable agreement is not reached, they will have no option but to terminate all staff and rehire the number needed on new and more viable pay scales. This has caused uproar – so the pilots Union (which is virtually run by senior staff on privileged terms and conditions) suggested a solution.
The Jumbo and other senior pilots would accept redundancy, provided B.A continue to pay them 66% of their salaries for a minimum of 3 years at the end of which they would either return to work or be paid their full redundancy entitlement. They also suggested that the junior staff who retain their jobs should make up the senior staff’s salaries. It is estimated that this represents a 15% pay cut for the remaining staff. It seems that B.A might accept this, but the junior staff are now doubly incensed and staff relations are toxic. They see themselves as having their ranks decimated by redundancy and those who retain their jobs will be paying for senior staff to stay at home for 3 years on several times the salaries the junior staff have to go to work for.
Can you imagine a worse industrial relations situation – this could easily mark the end of “The Worlds Favourite Airline”.
Other airlines including Easy Jet, Ryanair, Wizz Air, Jet 2 and TUI must be sitting on the fence watching this story unfold like hungry Buzzards.
