BA urges pilots not to spoil families’ summer holidays
British Airways is urging pilots not to disrupt families’ summer holidays after their union BALPA gave formal notice that it is to ballot its members over strike action.
The airline asked BALPA to join them for mediation talks with the conciliation service ACAS after the union rejected a pay offer that would have given pilots a rise of 11.5% over three years.
In a statement, BA said it was ‘extremely disappointed’ BALPA had raised the prospect of a ballot for industrial action.
It added: "We urge them to join us for mediation with the conciliation service ACAS, to reach an agreement and protect hard-working families planning their summer breaks.
"We believe our pay and benefits for pilots are among the best in the industry, with around 1,000 applications from pilots who want to move to us from other airlines every year."
BALPA, which took the unprecedented step of entering into joint pay talks with both cabin crew and airport and head office staff last December, said BA had offered ‘too little, too late’.
It said the airline’s offer also ‘fails to address the fundamental principle of fairness by denying employees a reasonable share of the success they have helped produce’.
BALPA general secretary Brian Strutton added: "All three unions have been working for the benefit of their respective members. Given we collectively represent some 40,000 employees, this is something that British Airways should pay careful attention to.
"For the pilots that BALPA represents, it is quite simple: BA has been enormously profitable, and the employees should have a fair share of that success which, after all, they produce for the company."
BA said it remains in talks with Unite, which represents cabin crew, and GMB, which represents head office and airport workers.
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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