Ok potted history to this thing. It gets complex. Nearly the entire pilot bunch don’t fully get it either so you’re not alone. We just see money vanishing out of our payslips shown as a chunky “deduction”.
They came to us in 2020 and wanted to fire (as part of a wish list of 12000 staff) an entire fleet. The 747 fleet. Our agreements stood to blow away like farts. When I say “they came to us” be under no illusion how they were speaking to us on webinars.
The Union and all were horrified. If this happened it meant the end of seniority at BA not to mention the plight of fellow workers tossed aside. So the pilot workforce clubbed together and created a pool for as many pilots in the scope of BA’s rifle
The pool was entirely funded by the pilots via a chiselled paycut. By funded I mean, the hand out money given to these pilots to live on, was entirely funded by the pilot workforce, not BA. BA wanted nothing to do with these miscreants they wanted off the pitch. So long, thanks for all the fish. Pretty much. However, BA not believing their luck at this far out pool idea, still wanted to have the ability to cherry pick a return at some point, if they fancied. A bit like dumping someone and keeping them on speed dial.
This pool was capped in size. So BA also made redundant (with no pilot funded money at all) an additional 250 pilots who were not allowed to be in this pool (work that out, they weren’t even paying for this pool themselves and still put their beak in as to who can be in it). Note. They now need everyone back. They. Now. Need. Everyone. Back.
And here’s the kicker. On top of this the firm took an extra pay cut out of everyone for the fact they didn’t get to enjoy firing the whole entire 747 fleet. That bit is in true BA fashion termed “the delta”. Its basically BA charging the pilots to keep our agreements. They wanted to ignore seniority. We didn’t. They charged us for it. Now the Ronnie Corbett punchline…
This year they wanted ALL the former 747 pilots back AND the ones they fired - the ones they wanted in the waste basket. And oh yes, they’re still charging everyone a fee for the fact they had to take back the 747 pilots. The same pilots they actually now need back! If you can find logic in there you’re better than any of us. I bet their laughing their heads off. Confused.com? We all are. This fee, the delta, is due to roll on donkies. It’s due to expire sometime when the sun in the sky becomes a red dwarf. It morphs around 4-10 percent depending on which way the wind is blowing.
You could hear the “nice one centurion!” back slaps from the board room from the North of England to Cornwall. They probably had XTC making plans for Nigel playing on a turntable as they popped the corks.
Answers to Q
1/ The calculation is not widely known. It’s mysterious to most of us. We find out pay packet to pay packet what it is. Estimated to hit approx 10 percent next year then slowly drift down
2/ Not technically but effectively is as it stands. Put it this way, a bank would take it as permanent for a mortgage application given the unspecified ending date. No one knows specifically when it’ll end. Estimated to go on years
3/ This one is down to BA. I can’t say what they’ll do.
4/ I haven’t seen the advert but if there is not mention of a deduction I’d guess and say it won’t include the delta in the given figures. I don’t know.