Unite offer pay freeze and 'new fleet' to avert BA strike
06.03.10
BA and union officers have set a deadline of 17:00 on Tuesday to avoid a cabin crew strike, as Unite considers tabling a compromise deal, including a two year pay freeze, the Guardian and Daily Mail both report. Unite's chief negotiator, assistant general secretary Len McCluskey, is considering a range of options as negotiators prepare a final offer to BA that could be tabled on Monday.
According to the newspapers' 'sources close to the talks', Unite's alternatives include a two year pay freeze, a part repeal of staffing cutbacks on flights and an agreement to create a ‘new fleet’ consisting of new, lower-paid recruits on separate planes.
The TUC, which is hosting the Unite and BA talks, announced yesterday that its general secretary, Brendan Barber, would end negotiations next Tuesday night: ‘On the initiative of Brendan Barber, both Unite and BA have committed to the goal of completing these negotiations by close of play on Tuesday 9 March to see whether a mutually acceptable resolution can be achieved.’
If the talks fail, Unite must provide 7 days' notice of strike action to BA, which implies it can strike from 16 March at the very earliest. It must stage a walkout by 22 March. However representatives at Unite's cabin crew branch, Bassa, have already started discussions on strike dates, and walkouts could be announced soon after the 17:00 deadline if no agreement is reached.
BA has demanded proposals from Unite that save a minimum of £60m a year on cabin crew outlay, and officials from the union were drafting these over the last few days. BA estimates that it will reach its cost savings objective after it unilaterally cut crew levels from 15 to 14 on long-haul flights in November - a step that led to cabin crew voting for strike action last month.
Unite is considering requesting a compromise that could see the 15th person put back on board on some of the busiest services, with lower crew complements retained on the other services. The union says this will make up a considerable part of the £60m expenditure savings. The remainder could be accomplished via a two-year pay freeze and, most significantly, a deal on the ‘new fleet’ proposal. Unite is looking for guarantees that these planes will not dominate routes such as New York and Tokyo, that happen to be amongst the highest earners for existing cabin crew.
According to a BA presentation in the TUC talks, ‘new fleet’ in effect creates a brand new airline within BA. The seniority system for cabin crew, where promotion is based on points such length of service, will be dismantled. This would allow senior staff to be recruited from outside BA into a innovative structure comprised of three roles: cabin crew, the new onboard post of customer service manager, as well as the office-based crew-team manager.
It is likely that average pay will be brought in line with rival commercial airlines like Virgin Atlantic, which pays its flight attendants half as much as BA, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
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