Originally Posted by
kcockayne
I think that there was a post on here yesterday to the effect that LIFO was discriminatory - against, obviously - recent recruits. Is it not the case that the whole exercise of choosing who to make redundant is a discriminatory process ? Therefore, whoever is chosen could claim that he has suffered from discrimination on the part of the company. In that case, isn’t LIFO just about the fairest method of choosing ? Or, has the world not gone mad ?
When BA closed the Manchester hangar and got rid of the based 737 fleet a points system was devised in consultation with local reps and management.
The company wanted to use qualifications such as aircraft type ratings plus disciplinary and sickness/absence as a basis.
The staff side argued that LIFO should also be part of the criteria.
Eventually, the disciplinary and sickness/absence was dropped as it was felt certain individuals would be unfairly discriminated against.
A combination of LIFO and type ratings was used with varying degrees of weight given to different types. In the end the weighting was roughly 50% LIFO and 50% type ratings. This meant that someone with lots of type ratings would have more points than someone with fewer types but lots of service.
It wasn't perfect and in the end 75% of the staff were made redundant but it was the fairest achieved at the time in a post 9-11 world.