I also believe that if this does go through the pilots will be next. Why pay the higher end of the industry standard.
99 % of UK carriers have well trained high calibre pilots. And most of those would like to earn BA pilot salaries. Esp if they are young and would have the op to reach the higher end of the BA Capt scales.
Theres a little contradiction there. BA only pays only a little more than the UK competition (and substantially less than the European majors) Indeed over a whole career a BA pilot may earn a lot less than counterparts elsewhere due to slow promotion. If they cut the pay where are these keen newbies who can reach the high paypoints (which you say wont exist anyway) coming from? BA already employs around 30% of all qualified airline pilots in the UK, we dont grow on trees. They were struggling to recruit enough good people only a few month ago.