The Potter
BA is just too politically correct for it's own good. By that I mean they know damn well who the work shy are but they just can't be seen to target them for fear of appearing to victimise the skivers. Instead it's far better to p!ss off your entire crew, demoralise your work force & drive your best staff to look for a far more rewarding career.
It's nothing to do with being 'Politically Correct'. It is all about taking the easy option, as you indicate in your next sentence - don't give them an excuse!!
The easy option is to not do anything about lazy staff. It is the same reason that the Inland Revenue go for the small fry, rather than the big fry who can employ tax lawyers. I recall working in the City 20 years ago: on joining a bank, I learnt that one supervisor was very good - all her annual reports said so. In due course, I discovered that she wasn't and started marking her down. Eventually, she left the company because I said what others did not want to say. It was not nice but it had to be done and the process was started with truthful information from other staff
Remember that almost all modern managers lack two things: Experience and Training. They are not trained to be managers, because that costs money and folks no longer stay with a company long enough to make the training pay back. Secondly, they do not have the experience because they are promoted too young - largely because they are cheap and the old ones (i.e. middle aged) have got so fed up that they have bailed at the soonest opportunity!
That is why they are bad managers - no one has selected them carefully, no one has trained them and no one has given them the time to grow up in the company, as much as in life! As I keep repeating, the rest of the UK is in the same boat with many 'managers' lacking the two of three things they need, the other being natural ability.
The story that you give about your wife is very sad and sadly typical of modern 'management'. Incidentally, if you wondered why the UK govt is in such a mess, it's because it is being run by people with the same ethos and lack of everything that are in BA. BUT this strike will fail to improve your conditions and will succeed in weaking the company and, thus, your conditions.