BA to make 12,000 redundant

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Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 98 total)

  • CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    Re Rferguson´s post and the comment that AC sees BA as ” a tightly knit family”. What an indictment of BA´s CEO who could not be further out of touch and sadly 12.000 people potentially, and most probabaly, going will be a cause to tick the box of “job done”

    4 users thanked author for this post.

    AlanOrton1
    Participant

    Re: tight knit family

    Given some of the tosh AC comes out with you have to wonder, when he does eventually leave BA, surely a career pivot into politics or mainstream media awaits, given his ability to talk contrived rubbish without any hint of embarrassment.

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    Roa1
    Participant

    As the virus wreaks havoc across the world, millions and millions of people are without jobs, going to work and spending wages has disappeared overnight, and the world of work ceased to exist, as we knew. Still, more job cuts are expected – a number not seen since the end of the Great Depression.
    Businesses, up and down the country are going bankrupt or struggling to survive, much like the British Airways. Our world of work and the social safety net has been ripped apart within 8 weeks, and the gov’t had to intervene and help us through this nightmare by a mixture of direct payments and loans to business.

    This is the worst peacetime crisis in living memory. Today, there is a general feeling that the world is at an historical turning point, that nothing will ever be the same again.

    Against these background, BA staffs are receiving 80% of their pay under the job retention scheme, and under a special deal, their pay will not be capped at £2,800 per month – unlike the standard terms of the furlough scheme. To me this gesture of goodwill by the BA in times of hardship sound pretty generous, compared to other workers summarily let go without money and an uncertain future. Surely BA can’t be all that bad as an employer!

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    speedbird1969
    Participant

    Roa1, I don’t know where you get your information from but BA are claiming standard furloughing rules of 80% capped at £2500 per month. This is not generous, I know of firms that are claiming this and still paying the 20% to keep staff on full wages. What Cruz has announced is nothing short of decapitating the company and shafting those that will be “lucky” to have a job after it happens to achieve his aims of being a low cost carrier.


    rferguson
    Participant

    Roa is correct. The BA furlough scheme is not capped at £2.5K. But i’ve no idea who actually benefits from this in the airlines. I’m ‘old contract’ legacy crew and as the figures used to calculate our 80% only includes basic and a monthly lump payment and not our allowances I hit nowhere near £2.5K.

    [quote quote=997193]To me this gesture of goodwill by the BA in times of hardship sound pretty generous, compared to other workers summarily let go without money and an uncertain future.[/quote]

    Any generosity of BA was shattered yesterday in letters to unions.

    ‘We are proposing to remove the existing fleet structure and create a simple, single group of
    cabin crew, with a single set of terms and conditions and operating to higher levels of
    flexibility. Those terms will include temporary layoff or short-time arrangements and a
    harmonised pay and allowance structure.’ (read – an entirely disposable workforce working to minimum terms)

    ‘If we are unable to reach agreement on these proposals as part of the consultation
    process (and we were unable to implement these proposals by relying on the reasonable
    changes clause in an employee’s contract) then we would propose to give all employees
    notice of dismissal by reason of redundancy and/or some other substantial reason, and offer
    a proportion of them employment under new terms and conditions ‘ (read – take it or get the sack)

    ‘Headcount reduction – Non supervisory crew. 3,811 out of c12,000. Supervisory crew. 889 out of 1860.’

    In short – opportunistic smash and grab. Basically, sign a new contract working for money and T&C’s even worse than the current Mixed Fleet (which are pretty bad by industry standard) or we’ll sack the lot of you and you can reapply for a job. Very very ‘generous’.

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    rferguson
    Participant

    It just amazes me that we have management that with all the angst and stress going on in peoples lives currently – lockdowns, 20+% reductions in take home pay whilst on furlough, uncertain futures, worries about themselves or family members becoming ill – they see it as an opportunity to create a ‘new structure’ that is basically decimation of terms on steroids. It just isn’t moral. To use a worldwide disaster as the opportune time to force through brutally ‘long term structural changes’ seems to verge a little on the sadistic.

    No one at BA denies that the headcount needs to reduce and efficiencies need to be found. The very first two things BA should have done were offer Voluntary Redundancy and unpaid leave. Then use that as a starting point for headcount reductions. But BA prefers to come from a place of scaring the living daylights out of its employees. They want bigger badder numbers for maximum leverage. What a way for a company to be run.

    **Personal opinions only**

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    canucklad
    Participant

    Just been announced that Ryanair is making 3000 people redundant and 99% fleet grounded until July
    thoughts with those FR folk who have now also become victims

    3 users thanked author for this post.

    canucklad
    Participant

    Breaking news — Ryanair has just announced 3000 job loses and 99% of the fleet grounded until July
    Once again, my thoughts are with hose folks through no fault of their own losing their jobs

    Apologies for the double posting – bugs in my laptop me thinks

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    DerekVH
    Participant

    This is a post forwarded to me from a friend and pretty well sums up how I as a loyal BA passenger feels:

    “My husband is a senior British Airways captain with over 30 loyal, devoted years of service with the airline.

    Middle class, solidly Home Counties, and precisely the person whose gentle tones you long to hear upon boarding a British Airways aircraft at the end of an arduous business trip in some moth-eaten corner of the world.

    As soon as his mellow, Radio 2 voice, and his “Good evening and ladies and gentlemen “ welcome aboard announcement comes across the PA system, you feel safe and warm, cocooned in the knowledge that for the next however many hours, you are secure in the hands of a consummate professional and his crew.

    Your subconscious immediately tries to picture him: a man in his late forties or early fifties, who, at the end of the flight, will no doubt fire up his trusty Volvo estate and drive home to his wife, 2.4 children, and ageing labrador or golden retriever.

    You might even meet him for a pint in the village local that evening.

    You recline into your premium cabin seat, order a G&T, and in your head at least, you’re already back in Blighty as the careworn palm trees whip past your window and the plane rolls along the runway on its takeoff path.

    That’s my old man, the quintessential BA skipper.

    Slice him in half, and you’ll discover the BA logo running through him like a stick of Brighton rock.

    I cannot begin to list how many times he has gone above and beyond for his colleagues, passengers and employer.

    Always the first to board, and the last to disembark, regardless of how exhausted he might be.

    A passenger in need of assistance? He’s there like a shot.

    A late wheelchair on arrival back at base? He’ll send everyone home and stay with the passenger until one eventually turns up, which these days can sometimes be an hour or more, not the ideal conclusion to a long night flight.

    Crew member taken ill down route? He’ll accompany them to hospital and keep in regular contact until he’s satisfied that they’re ok and all relevant parties have been notified.

    Duty. Honour. Responsibility. Decency. Solid British Airways characteristics, or at least they used to be.

    BA is his life, and in spite of me telling him for years that his spaniel-like fidelity would always go unrecognised (how right I was), he has stubbornly put his unswerving duty to “The Company” ahead of any other commitments to family or friends.

    Now we fear the worst, and fully expect that Messrs Walsh and Cruz will stab him in the back in grateful recognition of his many years of blind loyalty.

    COVID-19 is manna from heaven for IAG and the BA board: an opportunity for the company to divest itself of those employees who still enjoy the relative luxury of a half-decent contract and working conditions.

    Make no mistake. Henceforth, ALL British Airways employees will be working on minimum salary contracts, with little job security and the cheapest and worst working conditions legally allowable.

    “Don’t like it, Captain X? Shove off and we’ll have you replaced within a month…”

    Fills one with pride to Fly the Flag, does it not?

    BA has the cash reserves to come to a better and infinitely more humane solution than to sack 12,000 employees who would, I am in no doubt, be prepared to work for a reduced salary, thereby reducing costs and meeting the shortfall by sharing out the workload.

    The snag with that plan, however, is that IAG, WIllie Walsh and Alex Cruz would lose this never-to-be-repeated-once-in-a-lifetime opportunity which offers them the chance to get rid of their more expensive employees under the cover of crisis.

    It’s a gift horse not to be ignored.

    Equally, for BA to accept a very cheap government loan would open the door for Virgin, it’s most bitter of rivals, to do the same, thereby giving it the opportunity to find possible salvation.

    Walsh and Cruz have therefore concluded that, rather than give their UK opponents any chance of survival, it is preferable to throw their most loyal people to the wolves, and then replace them in a few years with far cheaper labour.

    Two birds with one stone. Job done. Management bonuses and Veuve Clique all round.

    And there, in a nutshell, is the brutal reality of the “we’ll come out of this a better society”, post-COVID world.

    Gone are the gentlemanly days of Lords King and Marshall, who took it upon themselves to actually give a damn about their employees, and who, in return, were admired and respected by the workforce.

    Today it is the Wolves of Harmondsworth in charge; they have scented blood and are going in for the kill.

    Far from emerging from COVID into a kinder, more understanding place, we will discover that the vultures and hyenas who run our biggest companies will use today’s climate to slice, dice, and butcher their best people in the manner of the most brutal Wuhan wet market.

    If you thought things became cutthroat after 2008-9, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

    Bottom dollar business, to hell with humanity, and let’s screw whoever we can, (as we have for many years), only now, we have the perfect excuse.

    Morals? Decency? Respect?

    Only if there’s a profit to be made.

    I leave it to you to decide whether that is a reality which you wish to inhabit.

    Or a flag you wish to fly.

    We’ll take more care of you? Judge for yourself.”


    capetonianm
    Participant

    Your description of the archetypal BA captain applies to many that I know personally, or by whom I’ve been flown but not met.

    The same ethos runs through so many BA staff at all levels. It is a shame that the Irish/Spanish mismanagement of a once great airline that was the pride of the nation have destroyed so much and so many lives.

    7 users thanked author for this post.

    rferguson
    Participant

    https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-05-01/iag-s-iberia-and-vueling-sign-1-1-billion-syndicated-loan

    IAG accepts aid in the form of $1.1B state backed loan for Iberia and Vueling. For BA, nada.


    CathayLoyalist2
    Participant

    DerekVH, what an indictement from the front line, Sadly that summary will undoubtedly be mirrored in other companies in the UK and globally. The only thing that matters is the bottom line and everything and everyone else be dammed. I have a family member who is a retired BA captain, even before Walsh and Cruz arrived. He spoke favourably of Rod Eddington as did Cathay Captains speak favourably of the late Peter Sutch. No other words to add just more than a tad of anger

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    Poshgirl58
    Participant

    DerekVH, thank you for the very emotional and thought-provoking post. Trying to find the right words to comment further.

    There must be many pilots around the world who go the extra mile (sorry, no pun intended!). Unlike Sully or Richard de Crespigny, we never hear about their efforts to help passengers after a flight. Also, the impact that events have on their personal lives. I remember a Thomson captain sharing a conversation before take-off from Rhodes; agreeing with passengers in the front rows, who wanted a decent cup of tea. Not knowing where he lived, it could have been at least 4am before he got his! Many years ago, I was talking to the wife of a Cyprus Airways captain, who had appeared on the BBC Heathrow programme. She gave a valuable insight into his role, including his appearance on UK television. The main points she made were the impact on family life, having to deal with difficult/stupid passengers and no, he didn’t earn the big bucks paid at airlines like BA.

    Sadly, the post sums up the attitude in many business sectors today (pre-Covid19). Management, for whatever reason, cannot or will not recognise the added value that talented and experienced staff bring to their company. I hope attitudes do change for the better, but…


    SimonS1
    Participant

    [quote quote=997241]Gone are the gentlemanly days of Lords King and Marshall, who took it upon themselves to actually give a damn about their employees, and who, in return, were admired and respected by the workforce.[/quote]

    Is that the same Lord King that was forced to reach out of court settlements with both Freddie Laker and Richard Branson after BA under his chairmanship was found guilty of collusion and predatory pricing?

Viewing 15 posts - 31 through 45 (of 98 total)
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