British Airways

[BABetrayal13]

On 15th June, I will be made redundant from the job I love after 15 years of loyal service. Redundancy notices are to be issued to 43,000 of my colleagues: the entire workforce. Yep, you heard right!

31,000 "lucky" former employees will then be offered re-employement on a far inferior contract that the company has wanted to enforce since 2010. For me, this would represent a 60% pay cut. Again, you heard right!

This is to be accompanied by an increase in productivity of 25%, not to mention far inferior T&Cs and, basically, a zero-hours contract.

All of this is with a backdrop of our CEO's bonus of £3.2 million in March this year; he’s been paid £33 million over the last 9 years. For the financial year '19/'20, the company I work for made a near record-breaking operating profit of £1.9 billion. I received no bonus; not a penny. Yep, you heard right!

The company I work for has the biggest cash reserves of any airline on this planet: £9 billion. During this "fight for survival", the company I work for is in the process of spending £1billion buying another airline. You heard right!

Nobody is saying we shouldn't all do our bit and take a shared responsibility approach as we ride this storm. However....! The company I currently work for absolutely refuses to negotiate. You heard right! 😡😠🤬🤬
#BAbetrayal

<strong>*Post edited by MNHQ</strong>*

Oh and thank you for coming back to confirm you are not a BA manager. Maybe you should be... I think you would make an excellent one.

BA are refusing to refund us on flights that they cancelled and we really need that money back. We’ll take them to court if we have to, it’ll be a cold day in hell before I fly BA again.

Amazing how these BA crew are up in arms about inequality and CEOs salaries now but happily ignored the fact that their colleagues have had lesser terms for years.

@JoeExoticsTiger but what about the complete change of contract? It's not just about the pay cut for legacy staff v mixed fleet, it the complete change to what their jobs actually involve. A purser I know is paid about £32k and she works in first class and has worked her way up for the last 26 years and has lots of experience to justify that salary. She has a roster (rosta?) well in advance and can plan her life round the flights. Her new contract takes her down to about £14k a year, and means they can be called at pretty much anytime for a flight (a bit like a zero hours contract). She might be asked to go to Glasgow or Australia, she doesn't have a choice in that. Additionally might be expected to help ground staff out etc. They are effectively making the role redundant and then reemploying in a much less senior capacity. How can this be acceptable or even legal?

@cosmos45 I’m sure BA would have done its homework and made sure it’s legal. Its also a case of supply and demand, each application round BA gets thousands of applicants for their mixed fleet cabin crew positions (yes the ones on £14k a year), imagine being employed alongside someone who just because they were on a legacy contract (doing exactly the same job) gets paid thousands more than you - it’s not fair. This is levelling the playing field and I’m sure is the right thing for the company.

Nb. I don’t work for BA, but am in the industry (not cabin crew).

@JoeExotics mixed fleet and worldwide have never flown together. It’s deliberately divisive. Mixed fleet went on strike over their contracts and got better ts & cs and it’s not worldwide or euro fleet’s fault

@Cosmos45 there is likely to be a mass case of constructive dismissal coming - if this goes ahead as government are now probably going to intervene

Cosmos..

I have no idea what the legal situation but just as a point of info that onerous "new" contract your purser contact describes; the short notice of work, being called for a variety of destinations, perhaps helping out on the ground, would sound very very familiar to the BA Mixed Fleet cabin crew I know - and they also manage to work in First class despite not having 16 years experience...TBH I think many would recognise it as a fairly standard cabin crew way of life (the pay is another argument).

I sadly think the idea some have that their group in BA is somehow so special that they don't need to engage with the company in mitigating the effects of any changes could be their undoing.

I hope I'm wrong.

@cosmos45

You answered your own question.

It's legal because they are making her position redundant.

She can reapply on preferential terms for a new role.

But her existing role is now non existent.

worldwide fleet staff have given zero concern for "colleagues" on the newer, mixed contracts just as long as their pay, allowances and travel concessions are retained. what goes around comes around.

@Rosehip10 that’s actually bollocks - stop demonising crew - my friend is on a different contract to the legacy contracts too - not all worldwide are on the same contracts either

Indeed having staff doing the same jobs on different contracts is very divisive. It is well known that WW crew speak in quite a derogatory way about their Mixed Fleet colleagues viewing them as very much economy class and themselves much superior.

Swings both ways BackInTIme - Pigs in Blankets, Jimmy's - all names Mixfleet have called Worldwide crew and Flightdeck.
There have always been crew on different contracts it is no great secret.

KTF BA crew XXXX

I work for Heathrow and completely a similar situation although we have already had our pay reduced from almost two months ago - last year the best year Heathrow's ever had, millions in bonus for the CEO just in March, billions in the bank, paying shareholders dividends even though there was a pandemic on and Heathrow was already struggling.... I honestly don't agree with the race to the bottom mentality and I don't agree with CEO's being worth millions of pounds because they will "save" the company. They set their own salaries with all their friends at the top who set each others' salaries - of course they're going to be high. If myself and my colleagues at my level could set our own salaries - they would be in the millions! We should make legislation so that CEO salaries can only be a multiplier of the lowest salary in the company, and also zero hour contracts need to be looked at too!

Legally they cannot reduce pay unless people agree. If people don't agree they might be made redundant (if the job is not there any more - not always easy to prove redundancy). However if people agree to lower pay as they often do in hard times then it's legal. Also people have the right to go on strike so if everyone resisted and there were no one else around to take on the jobs then that might work.

If I were offered much worse pay I would try to find a job that paid the same pay I currently got.

Curious if any BA staff on here in light of recent communications
I’m advising someone and I was pretty surprised
They seem to be offering two choices
But with really unsubstantial data on what either option entails
I’m pretty shocked
So stay with us but we can’t tell you the exact terms
Or leave , but we can tell you the exact terms either
Union don’t seem to be helping at all either

So all of those who are saying its only fair that the mixed fleet crew get paid the same as WW and EF crew, would you start a new job tomorrow and expect to be paid the same salary as someone else who has been there 10 years or 20 years? These staff have worked their way up and earned their pay through pay rises/promotions. Mixed fleet went on strike a few years ago to fight for better pay/T&Cs. Its hardly the fault of other staff that these latest employees earn less than them. Also "legacy crew" never put a gun to BAs head and demanded what they get paid. BA offered those wages and they accepted it. Same with the mixed fleet crew.

Union don’t seem to be helping at all either

That's been a complaint made by more than a few UNITE/BASSA members over the last few days and weeks ..

@Alrightnow

So all of those who are saying its only fair that the mixed fleet crew get paid the same as WW and EF crew, would you start a new job tomorrow and expect to be paid the same salary as someone else who has been there 10 years or 20 years?

Well it will be interesting to see how many people here are still paid iaw longevity pay scales.