BA’s Heathrow customer service staff have voted “overwhelmingly” to accept new working practices, which will see a reduction in manpower of 500 by March 2011.
The deal, agreed with the Unite and GMB unions, covers 2,850 staff across Heathrow’s T3 and T5. BA said that 300 of the 500 planned cuts in manpower had already been achieved using voluntary redundancy and new opportunities for flexible working options.
BA’s CEO Willie Walsh called the vote “another important step towards securing permanent structural change and the long term future of the company”, and said that it “underlines our commitment to working with all of our trade unions, including Unite”.
A separate dispute involving BA’s cabin crew is ongoing, with staff having staged 22 days of strike action this year, the last of which took place in June. BA also came to an agreement with the trustees of its New Airways pension Scheme earlier this year, aimed at reducing the scheme’s £3.7bn deficit.
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