BA crew told to accept new roles or lose their jobs
Union leaders claim British Airways is forcing pay cuts of up to £9,000 on senior cabin crew based at Gatwick.
Unite said that those who refuse to accept a new working structure would lose their jobs by the end of October.
It claimed more than 300 cabin managers and pursers were being offered new roles as ‘customer service managers’, but with lower pay, however BA disputed that some staff would see reductions of up to £9,000. In a statement, the airline said: "We’ve worked hard to give cabin crew a number of options that they can choose from and to minimise any financial impact."
Unite told Sky News BA was ‘holding a gun’ to the heads of senior cabin crew.
BA has given all cabin managers and pursers based at Gatwick until 17:00 on September 14 to accept the new role of cabin service manager from November 1, rejoin the main crew or accept voluntary redundancy.
In a letter to staff on September 2, BA said it had failed to reach an agreement with Unite after 10 months of negotiations.
"Today we met with the union, responded to their proposed Failure to Agree, and have formally closed collective consultation," it said. "We are now ready to move on to planning for the new CSM roles, which will come into effect on November 1, 2015."
Unite claims union members who accept the new CSM roles will see their salaries cut by 20% to 28%.
National officer Oliver Richardson said: "We’ve put forward a number of different options to BA, but instead they are ploughing on with changes which will result in some senior cabin crew at Gatwick receiving a significant pay cut or losing their job.
"This is unacceptable. Our members play a central role in making BA one of the world’s favourite airlines and feel increasingly betrayed.
"Holding a gun to senior cabin crew by saying ‘accept the new role and a pay cut, or be made redundant’ is not the way you would expect such a well-respected airline to behave – especially when you consider their published profits."
In its statement, BA added: "We have been consulting with the cabin crew trade union for ten months on proposed changes to senior cabin crew roles at Gatwick so that we have an operation which is sustainable, competitive and crucially ensures we will deliver a great service to our customers."
Disgruntled staff are posting their responses to the measures anonymously on the website BeFairBA.wordpress.com
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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