I saw this on twitterBritish Airways Pilot Recruitment campaign - the what you need to know prior to applying.
A long thread, make a brew or open a cold one first! 🪡🧵
Firstly, this is fantastic news! Signs that the over zealous 2020 cuts were largely wrong and that the pessismism of ICAO growth forecasts has been exposed. Should a deep recession be predicted, BA would not be making this move. However, some background….
In 2020 various levels of unpaid leave were agreed by unions overnight due to incredible limited timescales provided to them by BA to act in order to stave off the immediate effects of the near absolute shut down of aviation. Then an HR1 redundancy process began….
This came after the outgoing COO and Director of Flight Ops explicitly told pilots they were not after their terms, pay or jobs….
BALPA were approached by BA with a list of pilots they wanted to give notice of redundant too and wanted BALPA’s approval. This meant the entirety of the 747 cadre, A320 LGW Capts and a large swathe of the A380 fleet…
This was in direct contravention of our agreements with BA over the handling of such isssues.
The pilot body were consulted over a period of time and we agreed to after much intense negotiation to come up with a MPE of this total number of heads. This limited the actual redundancies to the most junior after all early retirements etc were accounted for.
Not every application for ER was accepted by BA. Over a hundred left and those left with no fleet held in a pool with surviving pilots sacrificing pay to find a % of their pay.
Eventually the Furlough scheme aided this package. Due to us daring to defend our agreements, Pilots had to fund the difference that BA had lost out on in not being able to fire their most expensive pilots. This ‘cost’ is the DELTA.
In the meantime BA had well and truly earned it’s parliamentary label of “a national disgrace”, it’s actions condemned on both sides of the house in 2020.
As governments relaxed their travel bans and lifted their metaphorical iron domes the travel sector has exploded. Aircraft being stood up from long term storage faster than expected and furloughed staff being brought back into the fold as quickly as could be accommodated.
During this time natural attrition has also occurred of the most expensive pilots (retirees)….
Fast forward and we are now in a situation where the airline is reliant on volunteers going through extra mile, offers to buy back leave, offering 1.5 times the overtime rate of pay (it’s termed and works differently to overtime pay but in effect is just that).
Still though they insist we are too expensive. We are so horrendously expensive they need to cut our pay but a variable amount, why is unclear given the offers to buy back leave and offer enhanced overtime rates. Clash is back baby!
We are in fact so expensive that we need more pilots now to ADD to the salary bill!The DELTA is therefore one thing and one thing only, a fiscal punitive measure for us daring to defend agreements that you may well become reliant on during your tenure at BA.That’s the background.
Now for some truths about working here at present…..
Due to a recent rejection by BALPA members to fix and therefore extend the length of the delta, ALL DEPs joining BA WILL be exposed to it. Otherwise a PP3 320 FO would take home less than a PP1 320 FO! the only exempt group are the PRP pool who were made redundant, most are back.
The delta is not fixed, but variable month by month and BA with BALPA have to both agree the figures after a quarterly review of where we are, number that have retired or otherwise left the business etc.
Your BASIC PAY is therefore VARIABLE and THIS will affect your mortgage applications with a large number of providers. The other variable pay elements also have a history of causing issues with some but basic pay is key!
You will also have the delights of JSS to contend with. On paper it looks promising and exciting, sure it’s no Bidline, but the theory on paper works. The reality is very different.
We are several years into JSS now and every month is an utter frustration as the roster is published and the ‘reasons report’ along side. Every month sees even the most senior having valid rosters binned due to ‘global constraints’.
These constraints vary month my month as BA commercial tweak the schedules during a bid run, forcing re run after rerun. Roster repair occurs and 8/10 times or so you end up with garbage.
You will work most weekends for eternity. Consider that in your worry/life balance assessment. We used to get weekend points to offset the chance of reserve assignment. That is now in the past. The most junior still doing the lion share of reserve (fair) but also weekends too.
Most trips end up with a late finish and early start after two or possibly three local nights. Not any different to EZY/Wizz/RYR/EXS et al. If you commute it makes it harder. Hotel prices are now through the roof constantly. From £34 to £87pn average on crew rates etc.
Nightstops are pretty much all min rest with a few exceptions and stand over days. In time it does slightly improve, until the next big upset in aviation when all agreements are scrapped again. It is best not to get overly excited about it.
The annual bid is not worth thinking about until the end of your engagement freeze. You will now be on SH for a considerable length of time as the company has demonstrated what it culls when the going gets tough.
The oldest fleet and the market segment with the stiffest competition, not rocket science.
So everyone is now bidding for the youngest LH fleet. Those on it won’t leave! A BALPA pay survey in the past weeks has demonstrated this.
Be prepared to do the same work as EZY for less money and a variable basic pay. The delta will eventually leave, but you’ll be staying on the 320 for a good 8 years. We won’t leave Longhaul and those on the 777 will only go to another younger LH fleet.
BA have and will pass you over in your bigs for a rated DEP onto the 350/777/380/787, past form here but there is a process that would increase your pay whilst you continue to sit on the 320.
Staff travel, good if you can ever use it. The HAL situation won’t last forever. Also prone to going horribly wrong and becoming expensive, be warned! Time and the ability to be flexible pays the best dividends with the system.
We have an excellent culture of looking out for each other with it where and when we can.
Pensions - the BAPP, a good pension considering what is currently available in the sphere of UK airline employment, just sadly with Aviva who are well known to have the highest fees in the business at present, but in terms of contributions as a DEP it is good.
In short don’t be hoodwinked with glossy catchy terms and hollow recruitment drive promises. Lifestyle and home work balance are critical in this industry and you learn more and more the longer you are in this madhouse we call aviation.
Longhaul is good, tiring and destroys your body but it is fun. Short haul
Is relentless stress. Is it worth it or is holding out for LH elsewhere a better option? Early commands pay dividends when companies struggle and you need to leave a sinking ship.
You may well astute enough to notice plenty of current pilots deeply unhappy on Twitter et al over the state of affairs at BA. We too were once outsiders who thought ‘how on early do they not know how good they have it?!’ Then we joined!
It isn’ BALPA doing this to us, it is the relentless assaults by Pilot Managers and the SMT. You too will come to be jaded.
For those who’ve been made redundant and are still looking, get in there and apply! I won’t stop anyone giving up their current seniority position or pay point or command in order to join, but be wary it is an incredibly toxic environment here at present.
Ask the difficult questions and see how willing they are to respond honestly, it might just save your your sanity and mental health.
So get in there and apply, even if you decide to turn them down it is great to be exposed to the process in order to be better prepared for the times it is worth getting in here. This is good news and for those that don’t mind the above, go for it, you will all be welcome here.
But do so with open eyes and an open mind. Good luck to you all and best of luck with the application and selection stages. It’s truly isn’t all bad but the grass is not always greener, it can be found to be tinder dry. Plus we no longer have job security at BA and they know it!
Where does this leave BA pilots?
On average, in 2023, pilots in other UK airlines will be on 105.6% so far of 2020 pre-Covid pay based on known pay rises in 2022 and 2023.
This excludes airlines pay increments, share schemes, and any one-off bonus. *source BALPA*
On the other hand, BA pilots will be on 90-95% of 2020 pre-Covid pay, depending on the delta in 2023. At a minimum, this puts us on average 11% behind all UK airlines. It could be as much as 16% below the UK airlines' average.