I do not think statements such as 'no recruitment until Apr 2011 at the earliest' help anyone. That is not a 'fact', it is opinion.
To be strictly accurate, it is neither a fact,
nor an opinion.
It is a stated company position, and is the 'key' to allowing the volountary severance arrangements to proceed. The company simply will not tolerate any severance if they anticipate 'backfilling' those positions within the stated period (Apr 2011). It would be financial stupidity!
The severance offer is simply a tool for BA/BALPA to determine what 'productivity improvements' (as opposed to salary cuts) could be used towards, our cost saving target, In other words they will be stripping these jobs out of the system for good!
This is different, and possibly additional to, redundancies!